HIBRARY OF CONGRESS.; 

# 

f [SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT.] 



! UNITED STATES OP AMEIlICxl. ! 



OBEDIENCE 



THE 



LIFE OF MISSIONS. 



BY 
THOMAS SMYTH, D.D. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

PRESBYTERIAI!^ BOARD OF PUBLICATIOJN". 

No. 821 Chestnut Street. 




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, 

Bt JAMES DUNLAP, Treasurer, 

In the Clerk's Ofllce of the District Court for the Eastern District 
of PennsylTania. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface 5 

The Faith which is the Principle of Missions, leads 
to that Obedience which is the life of Mis- 
sions 9 

The will of God , 20 

God's revealed will the foundation of all right 

Faith and Obedience 25 

God's revealed will concerning the salvation of the 

heathen 80 

God now accomplishing his decree in two superhu- 
man facts 37 

The fulfilment of this decree and of God's plan in 

the establishment of his Church 51 

The adaptation of the Church to the fulfilment of 

God's Decree 53 

What the Church accomplished of old, and is still 

able to perform 57 

Christ's Mediatorial work expressly designed for 

accomplishing God's Decree 60 

The will of God is the foundation of our knowledge 

of God, and of our obedience to him 63 



4 CONTENTS. 

PAGS 

Obedience to this decreed will of God the evidence 

and end of piety 67 

Opposition, disobedience, or indifference to this 

will of God, is sin 7S 

Our obedience or disobedience to this will of God 
to save the heathen, is of momentous and 
perilous consequence 75 

Most dangerous delusion. Every man required to 

obey 78 

Faith in God's Will to convert the heathen will lead 
to obedience. Where there is not obedience, 
there is not faith 80 

Difficulties are no excuse for disobedience 84 

God's decreed will makes failure impossible ...... 87 

God's plan in carrying out his decree not man's 
plan, but the best plan, as it makes obedience 
depend solely on God's will ..... 89 

All kingdoms and events subordinate to God's will, 

decree, and Church 97 

The sublimity and eternal recompense of implicit 
faith and obedience to God's will, and of 
labouring for missions under great discourage- 
ments 106 

The appeal — Africa — India — and their martyrs... . 114 

The greatness of the work and greatness of the 

power ... 140 

The true end and value of life 1 52 

The field of the world — A Moravian Missionary 

Hymn 161 

Note. — A third extraordinary fact 164 



PREFACE. 



The following argument is a sequel to two 
that have preceded it. I. " How is the World 
to be Converted? or. Christians Christ's Re- 
presentatives and Agents for the Conversion 
of the World.'' 11. "Faith the Principle of 
Missions," 

Like them, it was prepared by the author 
as Chairman of the Committee on Foreign 
Missions; read in substance before the Synod 
of South Carolina; and by it ordered for 
publication. And as the first was com- 
mended to the Board of Publication, and the 
second was also published by it, this also is 
issued through it, that the voice of this 
southern Synod may be heard and find an 



6 PREFACE. 

echo in the hearts of dear brethren and 
sisters in the Lord throughout the length 
and breadth of the land, and all the tribes 
of Israel come up together "to the help of 
the Lord, to the help of the Lord against 
the mighty." 

Exert thy power, tliy rights maintain, 
Insulted — everlasting King ! 
The influence of thy crown increase, 
And strangers to thy footstool bring. 

We long to see that happy time. 
That dear, expected, blessed day! 
When countless myriads of our race 
The second Adam shall obey. 

The prophecies must be fulfilled. 
Though earth and hell should dare oppose; 
The Stone cut from the mountain's side. 
Though unobserved, to empire grows. 

Soon shall the blended Image fall — 
Brass, silver, iron, gold, and clay; 
And superstition's gloomy reign 
To light and liberty give way. 



PREFACE. 

In one STreet symphony of praise, 
Gentile and Jew shall then unite ; 
And Infidelity, ashamed, 
Sink in the abyss of endless night. 

Soon Afric's long benighted sons 
Shall join with Europe's polished race, 
To celebrate, in different tongues, 
The glories of redeeming grace. 

From east to west, from north to south, 
Emmanuel's kingdom shall extend; 
And every man, in every face. 
Shall meet a brother and a friend. 



OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE OF MISSIONS. 



THE FAITH WHICH IS THE PRINCIPLE OF MISSIONS, 
LEADS TO THAT OBEDIENCE WHICH IS THE LIFE OF 

MISSIONS. 

The feeling of love and good-will to men, 
and the conscious obligation to communicate 
to them whatever benefits we enjoy — so far 
as our opportunity and ability permit — are 
collateral and coextensive. Where one ex- 
ists, the other cannot be absent; and to 
whatever extent the one prevails, the other 
will be found operative. To love our neigh- 
bour as we love ourselves — the second of 
God's two comprehensive commandments — is 
to do unto others as we would think it right 
and humane in others, if in our circum- 
stances, to do unto us. 

The faithful and even proportionate appli- 
cation of this principle to the gospel, and to 
2 



10 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

its manifold blessings^ is however only possi- 
ble to those who cherish a deep and life- 
inspiring faith in that gospel, as "the power 
of God, and the wisdom of God, unto the sal- 
vation of every one that believeth/' FaitJi^ 
therefore, is the Principle of Missions;^ 
faith in the sinful, guilty, and dangerous 
condition of the heathen; faith in the gospel 
as that remedy, by the foolishness of preach- 
ing which, it hath pleased God to save them 
that believe; and faith in those awe-inspiring 
declarations of God's word, that the whole 
world are guilty before him; — that without 
a written law, the heathen are a law unto 
themselves, their own consciences accusing 
or condemning them; — that there is no other 
name under heaven by which they can be 
saved but the name of Jesus;" — "go ye 
therefore into all the world, and preach the 
gospel to every creature. He that believeth 
and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that 
believeth not, shall be damned." 

Faith in these truths is the principle of 
missions, as a Christian duty, although there 

* See "Faith, the Principle of Missions," published 
by the Board. 



OF MISSIONS. 11 

are many other motives which conspire in 
urging upon every humane and philanthropic 
mind an enterprise designed to convey to 
semi-civilized and barbarous nations that 
gospel which is not only in itself considered 
the greatest of all earthly blessings, but is 
also the source and the security of all perfect 
civilization, refinement and progress. 

When royal Truth, released from mortal throes, 
Bui'st his brief slumber, and triumphant rose, 
111 had the holiest sued 
A patron multitude, 
Or courted Tetrarch's eye, or claimed to rule 
By the world's winning grace, or proofs from learned 
school. 

But, robing him in viewless air, he told 
His secret to a few of meanest mould; 
They in their turn imparted 
The gift to men pure-hearted, 
While the brute many heard his mysteries high. 
As some strange, fearful tongue, and crouched, they 
knew not why. 

Still is the might of Truth, as it has been, 
Lodged in the few, obeyed, and yet unseen: 
Reared on lone heights, and rare, 
His saints their watch-flame bear. 
And the mad world sees the wide-circling blaze, 
Vain- searching whence it streams, and how to quench 
its rays. 



12 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

And as it is faith in these evangelical, or 
gospel truths, which alone constitutes the 
principle of Christian missions, so also is it 
found to be true, that no other motive or 
principle will impel to that obedience which 
is the life of Christian missions. It is just 
as certain that he who does not believe the 
gospel, will not incur the self-denial and self- 
sacrifice necessary to preach that gospel to 
every creature, as that he will not be himself 
saved by it. Faith is, by its very nature, an 
operative principle. It brings into action 
not only every element of thought, but also 
every impulse to action. It fills the sails of 
the ship which the divine builder has man- 
ned, equipped, and made ready for sea. It 
supplies steam to the machinery of our moral 
nature. It projects the mind forward in the 
orbit of duty. It works by love, both to God 
and to man. 

Like clouds they are borne 

To do thy great will, 
And swift as the winds 

Around the world go : 
All full of thy Godhead, 

While earth lieth still, 



OF MISSIONS. 13 

They thunder, tliey lighten, 
The waters o'erflow. 

They thunder — their sound, 

It is Christ the Lord ! 
Then Satan doth fear, 

His citadels fall, 
As when the dread trumpets 

Went forth at thy word. 
And on the ground lieth 

The Canaanites' wall. 

0, loud be thy trump, 

And stirring the sound, 
To rouse us, Lord, 

From sin's deadly sleep; 
May lights which thou kindlest 

In darkness around. 
Our dull souls awaken 

Their vigils to keep. 

But to be thus energetic, faith must be 
pure. Faith must be evangelistic, in order 
to be evangelical. In order to secure pa- 
tience, perseverance, and heartfelt obedience, 
there must be faith in the remedy, as well as 
in the disease; faith in the physician, as 
well as in the remedy; faith in the height 
of the mercy, as well as in the depth of the 
misery. These constitute the only power 
2* 



14 

that can undertake and consummate Chris- 
tian missions. It is the combination of these 
spiritual forces into one, that gives to the 
faith of the gospel its efficiency, supplying it 
with its fulcrum, its lever, and its motive 
power, and thus making it mighty, through 
God, to the pulling down of the strongholds 
of sin and Satan. 

The recognized depravity of the heathen 
will not inspire self-denying efforts to save 
them. The depravity of the heathen was 
never more deeply felt than by the wise and 
virtuous among themselves. But philosophy, 
wanting the gospel, was equally powerless in 
motive and in means, and abandoned itself 
to despair and scepticism. And as it has 
ever been thus among the philosophers and 
philanthropists of former ages, so is it now. 
The Abbe Dubois, the celebrated Roman 
Catholic missionary, was so overwhelmed 
with the contemplation of the deep malignity 
of heathen character among the Hindoos, as 
to come to the conclusion that his mission 
was useless, and that the Hindoos were pre- 
destined to eternal damnation. Mohammed- 



OF MISSIONS. 15 

anism has sought only empire and subju- 
gation by the sword. Popery has never 
stimulated to any efforts beyond those of 
proselytism, propagandism, and mercenary 
thraldom; and has never yet permanently 
christianized a heathen nation. She preys 
upon living Christianity, and sustains her 
own life only by blood drawn from its veins. 
Unitarianism was some years since galva- 
nized into a spasmodic effort, and enterprised 
a mission at Calcutta, aided by the learned, 
high-caste Brahmin, Rammohun Roy; but it 
soon relapsed again into its spiritual death. 
The combined zeal and resources of the 
entire Unitarian denomination in the United 
States, provoked into activity by the activity 
of all around them, have again sent one mis- 
sionary to Calcutta, among people whom they 
had always represented as having Unitarian 
sympathies, virtuous tendencies, and simple- 
hearted errors. But how fearful is the con- 
trasted picture, as given by themselves, of 
what living Hindooism is found to be ! " Could 
you stand/' says Mr. Dall, their mission- 



16 

ary,"^ ^4n the midsfc of the heathen, and 
realize their utter destitution of that spi- 
ritual life which alone can fit a soul for the 
company of angels, of Jesus, and of God, 
you would not say that to talk of their agony 
in this world and the next was ad captandum, 
ox very wicked language; or that it 'made 
God a destroyer of the guiltless,' or 'no God 
of justice, far less a God of lovel^'f And 
yet with all his faith in this awful truth, which 
the gospel necessarily implies, but which is 
not itself the gospel, Mr. Dall has only suc- 
ceeded in gathering some thirty or forty 
persons — natives and half-caste- — besides cir- 
culating many Unitarian books. J 

^ Quarterly Journal of the American Unitarian Asso- 
ciation, July, 1857. 

f He thus gives a withering rebuke to the infidel 
pity of a whining writer in a Quarterly Review. 

J At the semi-annual meeting of this body, the Sec- 
retary read a paper in reference to the missions of the 
body, from which it appears they have one foreign and 
and one domestic missionary, at an expense of twenty- 
two hundred dollars. The paper read says: "There 
are some great discouragements in our attempts at pro- 
gress. In the first place, the Association never has 
had, through the whole thirty years of its history, the 



OF MISSIONS. 17 

The conclusion, therefore, which is equally 
sustained by history, by experience, and by 
the word of God, is, that it is only faith in 
the gospel, in the whole gospel, and in 
nothing but the gospel, which is the principle 
of Christian missions. Nothing short of this 
faith can inspire their conception. Nothing 
less than this can impart to them vigorous 
life. Nothing, neither more or less, can 
quicken and sustain that spirit of implicit, 
persevering, self-sacrificing obedience, Avhich 
is absolutely essential to secure the prosecu- 
tion, progress, and permanence of Christian 
missions. 

Dull thunders moan around the temple rock, 

And deep in hollow caves, far underneath, 

The lonely watchman feels the sullen shock, 

His footsteps timing as the low winds breathe: 
Hark ! from the shrine is asked. What steadfast heart 
Dares in the storm go forth? Who takes the Almighty's 
part? 
And with a bold gleam flushed, full many a brow 
Is raised to say, "Behold me, Lord, and send," 

unanimous approval of our denomination. In the next 
place, it is peculiarly unfortunate that a number of our 
leading ministers are totally indifferent to the Associa- 
tion. But the grand obstacle that weighs heavier than 
all, is our general indifference to associated action." 



18 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

^'Without reasoning on the subject, no un- 
prejudiced inquirer can deny, that from 
whatever cause, it is emphatically the eross 
of Christ which has acted as a mighty spi- 
ritual force upon the soul of the world. 
Hardly less undeniable is it that the cross 
has thus acted, because it contains the most 
touching expression of love and mercy, while 
at the same time it offers the highest evidence 
of the invincible moral power of the Re- 
deemer. As a simple matter-of-fact, it is 
the doctrine of crucified love that has tri- 
umphed over man, that has been almighty 
through God, that has arrested, captivated, 
regenerated human hearts. Wherever the 
cross has been wanting, Christianity has 
appeared shorn of its strength — an ineffec- 
tive, lifeless, cold system. But wherever the 
cross has been lifted up, even though asso- 
ciated with egregious human weakness, and 
with serious human errors, it has proved an 
all but resistless power in compelling to an 
almost superhuman devotion — to the living 
sacrifice of body, soul, and spirit, as a rea- 
sonable service in obedience to such a faith." 



OF MISSIONS. 19 

Runs not the word of truth through every land, 
A sword to sever, and a fire to burn ? 

If blessed Paul had stayed 

In cot or learned shade. 

With the priest's white attire, 

And the saints' tuneful choir, 
Men had not gnashed their teeth, nor risen to slay, 
But thou hadst been a heathen in thy day. 

To analyze and enforce obedience as the 
life of Christian missions^ will therefore be 
the object of the present argument. 

for a thousand tongues to sing 

My dear Redeemer's praise ; 
The glories of my Grod and King, 

The triumphs of his grace ! 

My gracious Master, and my God, 

Assist me to proclaim. 
To spread through all the earth abroad, 

The honours of thy name. 

Jesus, the name that calms our fears, 

That bids our sorrows cease ; 
'T is music in the sinner's ears, 

'Tis life, and health, and peace. 

Let us obey, we then shall know, 

Shall feel our sins forgiven; 
Anticipate our heaven below. 

And own that love is heaven. 



20 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 



THE WILL OF GOD. 



The belief in a God of infinite wisdom, good- 
ness, and truth, involves the necessary conclu- 
sion that all truth, virtue, and happiness, must 
find in his nature their source, their founda- 
tion, and their standard. But as the nature 
of God can be made known to us only by the 
revelation of his will in his works and word, 
it follows that the revealed will of God is, 
practically, the only rule by which we can 
infallibly ascertain what is truth, what is 
virtue, and what is happiness ; the only stan- 
dard to which all the controversies of limited, 
imperfect, misguided reason must be brought; 
the only power by which all spiritual motion, 
energy, and success can be imparted; and 
the only centre of spiritual cohesion and 
attraction, by which all the movements of all 
the agencies of all his creatures are over- 
ruled, and made to work together for the 
furtherance of God's glorious designs. 

As God's will — the term being used as ex- 
pressing to us God's infinite wisdom, power, 
and holiness, acting according to his sove- 
reign purposes — is the ultimate cause of all 



OF MISSIONS. 21 

causes and of all effects, of all laws and of 
all power, it is very evident that this will of 
God, though to him one and the same, must 
be regarded by us in a two-fold aspect, that 
is, as secret and revealed. 

As secret^ the will of God is, like him- 
self, infinite, eternal, all-comprehending, and, 
therefore, known only to himself, and justi- 
fied, on grounds of reason and choice, only 
to himself. Extending as it does to all 
events, past, present, and future, and to the 
consummated results of all events, the will 
of God implies knowledge too wonderful for 
any finite understanding; deep things, un- 
fathomable by any human reason ; and things 
so high and unsearchable as to be even com- 
prehensible only by the infinite Supreme, the 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 

Great God! how infinite art thou! 

What worthless worms are we ! 
Let the whole race of creatures bow, 

And pay their praise to thee. 

Thy throne eternal ages stood, 

Ere seas or stars were made: 
Thou art the ever-living God, 

Were all the nations dead. 

3 



22 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

Nature and time quite naked lie, 

To thine immense survey — 
From the formation of the sky, 

To the great, burning day. 

Eternity, with all its years, 

Stands present in thy view; 
To thee there's nothing old appears — 

Great God! there's nothing new. 

Our lives through various scenes are drawn, 

And vex'd with trifling cares; 
While thine eternal thoughts move on 

Thine undisturbed affairs. 

This being a universal and absolute truth, 
it is just as true of any one event in the 
succession of events, as it is of all events 
regarded as a whole. It is also as fully true 
of any particular scheme or course of divine 
providence, as it is of that universal scheme, 
of which each particular scheme is a link, an 
epoch, an event, a scene, a single act. The 
incomprehensibility of God's will is, there- 
fore, just as true (but not more so) of the 
scheme of God's moral government over man 
in this world — of his permitted trial, tempt- 
ation, and apostasy — and of the plan and his- 
tory of redemption — as it is of God's moral 



OF MISSIONS. 23 

gjDvernment over other worlds, and other 
intelligent races of beings. It is, in all 
cases, past our finding out, and beyond the 
range even of angelic scrutiny. 

The gospel, considered as including the 
scheme and the whole administration of sal- 
vation, in all its dispensations, through all 
periods of time, and under all the changing 
vicissitudes of human society — though only 
one act in the endless drama of the divine 
government, is, nevertheless, in itself con- 
sidered, a scheme of boundless extent. It 
comprehends a past, present, and future, 
which is to man illimitable. It extends be- 
yond man and man's world, to other beings, 
and to other worlds, in ways and measures 
which we can neither conceive nor compre- 
hend. Even this scheme of salvation, there- 
fore, is one of which, before its revelation, 
we could have known absolutely nothing; of 
which we can know, even now, absolutely 
nothing — beyond what is revealed ; of which 
we can witness only a single manifestation, 
as it passes before us in the great panoramic 
revolution of time; and which is revealed 



24 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

arid exhibited to men only so far as is neces- 
sary to guide the wayfaring traveller safely 
on the highway of salvation, through the 
wilderness of sin and guilt. And hence, all 
objections against this scheme of salvation, 
and against the method in which it is car- 
ried on, must, from the very nature of the 
case, be founded in ignorance; must be 
maintained without any proper ground for 
forming an opinion; and must therefore 
imply presumptuous impiety and wicked ab- 
surdity. "Secret things belong unto the 
Lord,'' by whom alone the issues of any one 
event are either known, or capable of direc- 
tion and control. 

How thankful, then, should we be, that 
while the will of God is known perfectly 
only to himself, and is capable of being 
made known in any measure only by him- 
self, God has, nevertheless, in infinite con- 
descension and mercy, revealed his will, so 
far as is profitable for instruction, for re- 
proof, for correction, for thoroughly furnish- 
ing unto every good word and work, and for 
attaining to everlasting life ! 



OF MISSIONS. 25 

This revealed will of God comprehends all 
we know of God, whether our knowledge is 
derived from the works of nature; from the 
ways of providence; from the nature and 
constitution of the human mind, of human 
governments, and of human society; or 
whether it is derived from God's word and 
Spirit, from prophecies, promises, and spiri- 
tual experience. 

god's revealed will the foundation of all 
right faith and obedience. 

This revelation of God's will — this actual 
and certain knowledge of what God is, in his 
nature, attributes, and offices; this heaven- 
imparted discovery of God's purposes and 
plans towards man; of his desires and de- 
signs in the gospel; and of his mode of pro- 
claiming and of administering his spiritual 
kingdom upon earth — this will of Grod is, we 
say, the foundation of our faith. It is on 
this will faith builds, as on the rock of ages. 
It is on this will faith rests, as its evidence 
and authority. And it is to this will of God 
faith looks, for all the certainty, the power, 
3* 



26 



and the instrumentality of its victorious 
triumph. 

By Ms word, and by his hour, 
When the promise came with power, — 
By his Holy Spirit's token, — 
By his covenant unbroken, 
Strengthening, while the world lasts on 
From his cross unto his throne, 
Till the glorious work is done. 
Know that God's own might is yours, 
And yours the righteous crown. 

But this revealed knowledge of God is 
also the source of all our moral obligations. 
It makes known the relations in which God 
stands to us, and in which we stand to God, 
and in which, as they are also related to 
God, we stand to our fellow-creatures. The 
Triune God having revealed himself as a 
merciful Father, loving the whole world of 
human beings, even considered as sinful, 
guilty, and miserable; and having further 
revealed himself in Christ, his Son, as our 
Saviour, manifested for the reconciliation of 
the world unto himself; and having revealed 
himself still further in the person of the 
Holy Spirit, as convincing the world of sin, 



OF MISSIONS. 27 

of righteousness, and of judgment, and in 
this way converting, regenerating, and sanc- 
tifying the souls of men; and God having 
also revealed that this scheme of divine 
mercy is to be carried on through the instru- 
mentality of redeemed men, and the ordinary 
agencies of human power and influence; — 
these things being revealed and made known, 
it becomes at once the duty of every man to 
believe them, and to act in accordance with 
them. They originate not only faith, but 
also works. They constitute relations and 
obligations between us and God, and between 
us and men. They demand the obedience 
of faith, and the obedience of practice. 
They require doing as well as believing. 
They make service just as reasonable as 
hearing; sacrifice just as necessary as ser- 
vice; self-denial just as imperative as reve- 
rence; and laborious exertion just as plainly 
obligatory as implicit submission. The re- 
vealed knowledge of God and of his will 
creates, therefore, practical principles as 
certainly as abstract truths; duties as well 



28 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

as dogmas; and a life and occupation as 
assuredly as a creed. 

Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees, 

Belies on that alone; 
Laughs at impossibilities, 

And says, ^*It shall be done," 

Faith lends her realizing light, 

The clouds disperse, the shadows fly; 

The invisible appears in sight, 
And God is seen by mortal eye. 

As faith, therefore, is the principle of 
Christian missions, so obedience is their life. 
Faith is God's truth believed; obedience is 
God's truth acted upon. Faith receives the 
knowledge of God's will; obedience applies 
it to its legitimate purposes. Faith trusts; 
obedience ventures. Faith loves; obedience 
works. Faith says, "It ought to be done;" 
obedience says, "It shall be done.'' Faith 
acknowledges the command of our Father, 
to "go;'' obedience goes and works. Faith 
looks to the promise, to the prospect, and to 
the ultimate success; obedience looks to the 
field, to the harvest, and to the wheat perish- 
ing for want of labourers, and thrusting in 
its sickle, in the sweat of the brow, toils 



OF MISSIONS. 29 

until the day is over, and the night has 
come, when it can no longer work. Faith 
points to life and to the world as a state of 
probation, preparation, and discipline, and 
to heaven as a place of rest, recompense, 
and glory; obedience accepts the trust, 
acquiesces in the trial of its faith, and gives 
all diligence to make our calling and election 
sure, by working out our own salvation, and 
the salvation of others, with fear and trem- 
bling. In all times of need ; in every uncer- 
tainty; amid perplexity and doubt; when 
surrounded by clouds and darkness; when 
tossed by whirlwinds, and amid engulfing 
seas, faith looks to this will of God as her 
anchor, her hope, and her compass, while 
obedience stands at the helm, and steers 
right onward, bating neither heart nor hope. 

Christ's clmrcli her ample bosom may expand, 

Again contract— may open far and wide 

Her tent, extend her cords, on either hand 

Break forth, again into herself subside ; 

Alike with her Faith's oracles abide, 

Kevered by fickle worshipper or spurned. 

Oft faint, ne'er lost, the lamp by heaven supplied, 



80 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

Oft dimmed by envions mists, ne'er undiscerned, 
God's witness, through all time, hath in his temple 
burned. 

0, holy Truth, whene'er Christ's voice is heard, 

A thousand echoes answer to the call; 

Though oft inaudible his gentle word, 

While we regard not. Take me from the thrall 

Of passionate hopes, be thou my all in all; 

So may obedience lead me by the hand 

Into thine inner shrine and secret hall. 

Thence hath thy voice gone forth o'er sea and land, 

And all that will may hear, but none can understand, 

Save the obedient. From both fear and doubt, 
Affections vile, low cares, and worldly blight, 
And controversial leanings and debate. 
Save me ! From earthly film my mental sight 
Purge thou. Make my whole body full of light. 
So may my eyes from all things truth convey, 
My ears thy providential lessons read aright, 
My dull heart understand, and I obey, 
Following where'er thy cloud hath marked the forward 
way. 

GOD^S REVEALED WILL CONCERNING THE SALTATION 
OF THE HEATHEN. 

As it regards the subject of Christian 
missions to the heathen, God has revealed 
his will with a clearness, frequency, and 
emphatic earnestness, which leave no room 



OF MISSIONS. 31 

for ambiguity or indecision. Take, for in- 
stance, the second Psalm — a psalm inspired 
a thousand years before the birth of Christ, 
to be sung with exultation in the temple ; to 
be adopted by God's believing people in all 
ages, to the end of time, as the joyful ex- 
pression of their faith, hope, and confident 
expectation ; which has thus for three thou- 
sand years been the strong tower to which, 
in every emergency, the beleaguered host of 
Zion has fled; and which, in their hours of 
battle and of persecution, has constituted 
their rallying cry, and their shout of triumph, 
and their victorious banner. 

*'Yet have I set my King, [the Anointed, 
the Messiah,] upon my holy hill of Zion. I 
will declare the decree: Jehovah hath said 
unto me, [the Anointed,] Thou art my Son ; 
this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, 
[as thou sittest at my right hand, fulfilling 
thy mediatorial work,] and I shall give thee 
the heathen for thine inheritance, and the 
uttermost parts of the earth for thy posses- 
sion. [New Test.: 'He shall reign for ever 
and ever, King of kings, and Lord of lords.' 



32 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

Rev. xi. 15 ; xix. 16.] Thou shaU break them 
■with a rod of iron ; thou shalt dash them in 
pieces like a potter's vessel. [New Test. : 
*He must reign till he hath put all enemies 
under his feet.' 1 Cor. xv. 25.] Be wise 
now, therefore, ye kings; be instructed, 
ye judges of the earth. Serve Jehovah with 
fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the 
Son, [New Test. : ' Come unto me, all ye 
that labour and are heavy-laden.' Matt. xi. 
28,] lest he be angry, and ye perish from 
the way, when his wrath is kindled but a 
little. [New Test.: Tor our God is a con- 
suming fire.' Tall on us, and hide us from 
the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, 
and from the wrath of the Lamb.' Heb. xii. 
29; Rev. vi. 16.] Blessed are all they that 
put their trust in him. [New Test. : 'Who- 
soever believeth in him shall not perish, but 
have everlasting life.' John iii. 16.]" 

Here then we have, in very plain, peremp- 
tory, and authoritative language, the willy 
the decree, of the Father — written in the 
volume of the Book of his everlasting pur- 
poses, and emphatically announced in a 



OF MISSIONS. 33 

psalm appointed for daily use in Zion, and 
burning, as it has been eloquently said, 
"with seraphic fire; filled with high themes 
which never entered man's heart; a sum- 
mary of truths high as heaven, and deep as 
hell, before which every one who understands 
them trembles; announcing a plan of salva- 
tion devised in God's eternal counsels, and 
which it emptied heaven to execute; and 
condensing a history of all future ages as 
present to the omniscient mind, for the 
guidance of his obedient children," 

Here also we have unrolled for our peru- 
sal that will of God which Christ the Son 
came into this our accursed world 'Uo do," 
and which he ever lives at God's right hand 
to execute. Here is that will of God which 
Christ authoritatively enforced in his com- 
mission to his church — when on the mount 
of ascension he spake unto it, and said, "Go 
ye into all the world, and preach the gospel 
to every creature;" which he embodied in 
the short and simple form of prayer delivered 
by him as the comprehensive summary of 
all Christian obligation and blessing; which 
4 



34 



Christ has made the ground and limit of his 
presence and blessing to the end of the 
world; and which is given also as the mea- 
sure of this world's duration, seeing that 
when the gospel shall have been preached 
among all nations, as a witness to the people, 
then shall the end come. This, in short, is 
the "promise of the Father," which the dis- 
ciples heard from Christ, the times and the 
seasons for fulfilling which the Father hath 
put in his own power, and which there- 
fore it is not for man to know. "But," 
added the departing Saviour, "ye shall re- 
ceive power after that the Holy Ghost is 
come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses 
unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, 
and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost 
part of the earth." 

Here then is an exposition of his will, 
given by God himself; sustained and inter- 
preted by innumerable promises, prophecies, 
and acts; and made so plain and prominent 
as to constitute the ground of the most 
implicit faith, and the motive to the most 
self-sacrificing efi*ort. And hence we are 



OF MISSIONS. 35 

informed, that they who listened to our 
Saviour's last annunciation of this "promise 
of the Father," — that these all "continued 
with one accord in prayer and supplication 
with the women." 

Let it then be understood and felt, that it 
is the will of Grod that the heathen should be 
given unto Christ, and the uttermost parts 
of the earth as his possession. This, be it 
understood by all men, is not merely God's 
secret, sovereign, and absolute will; this is 
God's will, revealed and declared. This is 
not merely God's will, as that word implies 
God's willingness that this should be accom- 
plished. It is God's desire. It is God's 
decree. It is God's decree, declared and 
ratified. It is God's decree, consummated 
by the actual establishment of his spiritual 
kingdom; by the incarnation of his only 
begotten Son ; by the inauguration of Christ 
as King upon the holy hill of Zion ; by his 
exaltation to the throne of heaven; by his 
endowment there with all power in heaven 
and on earth. This is that will of God which 
he has publicly attested to all past ages by 



36 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 



the extension of Christ's kingdom; by its 
preservation and propagation through sixty 
centuries; through people and realms of 
every tongue; against powers of earth and 
hell combined ; through ages of persecution 
and seas of blood; gathering to itself, in its 
visible organization, through every successive 
generation, from among its enemies and its 
most determined, active assailants, millions 
of devoted — because convinced and convert- 
e(J — friends; and collecting together, in its 
invisible form, "the kingdom of heaven, the 
general assembly, the church of the first- 
born, the heavenly Zion;'' the millions of 
millions who, through faith and patience, and 
manifold tribulations, conflicts, and victo- 
ries, shall have passed from earth to heaven, 
from time to eternity, from faith to vision, 
and from hope to the full fruition of unspeak- 
able delight. 

Lord, who, to set thy pardon's seal, 
To us thy Godhead dost reveal. 
And on our skies the signal plant 
Of thy life-giving covenant : 
Grant I may so obedience learn. 
That I may all its truths discern; 



OF MISSIONS. 87 

And thus, Tvliile I its truths discern, 
My heart shall full obedience learn, 
Until their mutual benison 
Disclose in me the eternal Son. 
So order me, that wholly thine, 
Walking in holy discipline, 
Thy promise in my soul I'll hide, 
To steer me mid life's whelming tide; 
Above all joy thy kingdom love, 
In life and death thy servant prove, 
Resigned, resolved, in meekness bold ; 
That so thy prayer, which I repeat, 
May find in me accordance meet. 



GOD XOTT ACCOMPLISHING HIS DECREE IN TWO SUPER- 
HUMAN PACTS. 

Let us dwell upon two of thxO marvellous 
facts to which we have alluded. Although 
superhuman in their character and cause, 
and most wonderful in their development, 
and of extraordinary force as proofs of the 
divinity of Christianity, they are greatly 
overlooked both by the friends and by the 
enemies of the gospel. 

The first is, that the adherents of Chris- 
tianity, at any one time, are composed ex- 
clusively of those w^ho have been convinced, 
4* 



38 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

converted, and made willing captives and 
loyal subjects of the Kedeemer's kingdom 
during a single generation, and who will 
cease even to exist when another generation 
shall have come into existence. The Church 
of God is not self-perpetuating. It is not 
hereditary. It is not a caste. It is not a 
secret mystic order. It creates no monopo- 
ly. It is sustained by no appeals to pride, 
passion, interest, honour, or emolument. It 
recognizes no distinction in colour, in rank, 
in social and civil position, in wealth, educa- 
tion, or refinement, except so far as these 
pertain to the life that now is, and to those 
temporal distinctions which are ordained of 
God only for man's present advantage and 
progress, and, after serving their temporary 
purposes, perish and are forgotten. On all 
that is of the world, Christianity looks with 
anxious and sorrowful contemplation. On 
all the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, 
and the pride of life — on all its pomps and 
pageantry— on all its fashion and vain show 
• — on all its diversities of rank and fortune, 
of wealth and poverty — on all this fashion 



OF MISSIONS. 39 

of the world, Christianity looks down as 
upon the waves which, in endless variety of 
form and size, rise, and fall, and sink into the 
one common mass of ocean ; or as upon the 
bubbles that come to the surface of some 
boiling spring, which, however diversified in 
their force and figure, and noisy ebullition, 
all burst and scatter, and wholly disappear. 
Christianity, therefore, is no natural so- 
ciety, combined and held together by natural 
principles, prejudices, partialities, or asso- 
ciations of any kind. It repudiates and ab- 
jures them all. It is based exclusively upon 
spiritual truths, spiritual hopes, spiritual 
blessings, and spiritual experiences. It de- 
mands the renunciation of all others, so far 
as they may be contrary to these. It knows 
no birthright but a celestial birth, no title 
but faith, no life but Christ, and no citizen- 
ship but that constituted by allegiance to 
Him who is the King of Zion, and the King 
of kings. Every Christian is therefore a 
convert, who had once been a pervert. 
Every Christian is a friend who had once 
been an enemy. Every Christian is a re- 



40 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

claimedj reconciled, and adopted cbild, who 
had once been an apostate, prodigal, and 
disinherited outcast.* 

And hence, whether in another generation, 
Christianity shall become extinct, and the 
Church exterminate, depends upon the fact 
whether other millions shall arise to take the 
places of the living by coming out from the 
world, by separating themselves, believing 
Christ's doctrines, by submitting to Christ's 
discipline, by accepting Christ's promises, 

* *< Who are they," says Arnobius (lib. i.) **perhaps 
you ask — (be is addressing the heathen, and appealing 
to the example of the first Christians) — tribes, peoples, 
nations, the incredulous human race? Had not the 
thing been public, and in some sort clearer than the 
light, they would never have given their assent to 
claims of this nature. Shall we say that the men of 
those times were inconsiderate, deceitful, stupid, 
brutish enough to feign having seen what they never 
saw? — and that when they might have lived with you in 
harmony and amicable union, they chose gratuitous 
hatred, and to bear an execrable name ? Truly, it 
was because they saw all these things done by Christ 
and by his heralds, that multitudes, conquered by the 
force of truth itself, gave themselves to God, nor 
thought it too great a cost to surrender themselves to 
you for torture and for death." 



OF MISSIONS. 41 

by devoting themselves to Christ's service in 
body, soul, and spirit; and by living not 
unto themselves, nor unto the world, but 
unto Him that died for them, who rose 
again for their justification, and whose will 
it is that his gospel should be preached to 
every creature. 

Let us, then, bear this in mind, in our 
estimation of the claims of the gospel to 
be — according to the decree and plan of 
God — the instrumentality, the power, and 
the wisdom of God for the salvation of 
men, and predestined therefore to be yet 
preached, as a witness unto all nations, and 
to the very uttermost parts of the earth. To 
have any thing like a proper view of these 
claims, we must not only estimate the mil- 
lions now alive, who have been constrained, 
by a reluctant conviction, to render to that 
gospel a real, or at least an outward and 
submissive obedience; but to these millions 
we must also add the millions more, in every 
generation, up to the time of the original 
proclamation of that gospel in the garden 
of Eden, who have thus believed. But we 



42 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

must still further remember, that every one 
of these millions was personally, and by his 
own individual choice, and against all the 
dissuasions of carnal pleasure, worldly profit, 
and earthly ambition, a living and a willing 
sacrifice, offered up by his own hand upon 
the altar of the divine Redeemer's one great 
sacrifice, as a propitiation for the sins of the 
whole world. 

It is in this aspect, and in this only, that 
we can clearly see the w^ill of God, as re- 
vealed in his decree, actually realized and 
made the immovable foundation of all provi- 
dences, the basis of all promises, the spirit 
of all prophecies, the life of all dispensations, 
the soul of all ordinances, the key of all 
mysteries, the philosophy of all history, the 
destiny of all nations, the chain of all events, 
and the electric wire which conveys one and 
the same utterance, from the first voice of 
God in Eden, to that full proclamation of 
the gospel now made to every age, and kin- 
dred, and people under the whole heavens. 

How great, then, is our privilege who live 
in these later days of the church and of the 



OF MISSIONS. 43 

world! The spiritual experience of sixty 
centuries, and of a cloud of innumerable wit- 
nesses is ours. We have not to tread a path 
in which we have no precursors, or encounter 
dangers which have never been met and 
overcome. Far as the eye, or even imagina- 
tion can reach, the road which we have to 
traverse is crowded with beckoning forms, 
as though the sepulchres gave up their host 
of worthies that we might be animated with 
the view of the victorious throng. 

Soldiers of Christ, arise, 
And put your armour on, 
Strong in the strength which God supplies 
Through his eternal Son; 

Strong in the Lord of Hosts, 
And in his mighty power; 
Who in the strength of Jesus trusts, 
Is more than conqueror. 

Stand then in his great might, 
With all his strength endued ; 
But take to arm you for the fight. 
The panoply of Grod. 

That having all things done. 
And all your conflicts past, 



44 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE | 

Ye may o'ercome througli Christ alone, | 

And stand entire at last. \ 

i 

From strength to strength go on, | 

Wrestle, and fight, and pray, ^ 

Tread all the powers of darkness down, .i 

And win the well-fought day. } 

Such. IS the first fact, in proof of the vi- ] 

tality and of the actual accomplishment of & 

God's decree, to which we would invite more | 

than ordinary attention — a fact which mul- i 

tiplies the number of distinct witnesses to ! 

the truth of Christianity by millions, and as- I 

similates the accumulated power of their j 

combined testimony to the light of the Sun, J 

whose goings forth are from one end of the i| 

heavens unto the other, and which utters its I 

silent proclamations, wherever there is a | 

speech or language in which they can be | 
heard. 

And the second fact in proof of the actual | 

accomplishment and glorious power of God's | 

decree — like unto the first, and following | 

from it as a final end and consummation — is I 

that unlike all other kingdoms, this kingdom j 

of Zion is unfailing and undiminished. Of | 



OF MISSIONS. * 45 

its dominion there is no end. Its victories 
never become defeats, because its defeats are 
always the precursors of greater and more 
glorious victories. The conquests of the 
gospel abide in everlasting trophies of re- 
deeming grace. Its converts, numerous as 
the drops of morning dew, are transformed 
into living diamonds, which sparkle in un- 
diminished lustre upon the leaves of that 
tree which grows fast by the river of life in 
the paradise above, and whose ever-growing 
branches supply shade, fruit, and beauty to 
the increasing multitude of the ransomed of 
the Lord, as they return, day by day and 
hour by hour, to the celestial Zion, with 
everlasting joy upon their heads. 

I stood by the open casement, 

And looked upon the night, 
And saw the westward going stars 

Pass slowly out of sight. 

Slowly the bright procession 

Went down the gleaming arch, 
And my soul discerned the music 

Of their long triumphant march : 

Till the great celestial army, 
Stretching far beyond the poles, 

6 



46 



Became the eternal symbol 
Of the mighty march of souls. 

The stars and the mailed moon, 
Though they seem to fall and die, 

Still sweep, with their embattled lines, 
An endless reach of sky. 

And though the hills of death, 

May hide the bright array. 
The marshalled brotherhood of souls 

Still keeps its upward way. 

Upward! for ever upward, 

I see their march sublime, 
And hear the glorious music 

Of the conquerors of Time. 

And long let me remember 

That the palest fainting one 
May to Divine yision be 

A bright and blazing sun. 

The church on earth is only the nursery 
for the church in heaven. She is only the 
birthplace of souls — the school of eternity — 
the gymnasium of probationary discipline — 
the field of labour — the scene of battle — the 
theatre of glorious war— the harvest for a 
celestial reaping, when the harvest-home of 
every grain of wheat, ripened upon earth 
and gathered into the heavenly garner, shall 



OF MISSIONS. 47 

be celebrated amid the rejoicing shouts of 
that innumerable multitude whom no maa 
can number. 

When, therefore, the present generation 
of true believers shall pass from earth, they 
shall pass to heaven. They die not; they 
die no more; they are not lost; they are 
only gone before. 

He bides with us wlio dies, lie is but lost wbo lives. 

They do not cease to be Christians; they are 
made perfect in heaven. They do not lose 
their birthright; the inheritance is theirs, 
and the heir has become the lord and mas- 
ter. They join the generation of true be- 
lievers who preceded them; they mingle with 
the general assembly and church of the first- 
born in heaven. They become fellow- citizens 
with Adam and Eve; with Enoch and the 
sons of God*; with Noah and his believing 
posterity; with Abraham and Job; with 
Moses and Elias; with prophets and apos- 
tles; with saints and martyrs; with friends 
and relatives ; and with all the blessed dead 
who have died in the Lord in the faith and 
hope of the gospel. 



48 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

Come on, my partners in distress, I 

Companions througli the wilderness, [ 

Fierce warfare urging still: S 

Awhile forget your griefs and fears, \i 

And look beyond this vale of tears, j 

To that celestial hill. « 

Beyond the bounds of time and space ] 

Look forward to that heavenly place, J 

The saints' secure abode; k 

On faith's strong eagle pinions rise. 
And force your passage to the skies, 

And scale the mount of God. 

We suffer with our Master here, I 

But shall before his face appear, ] 

And by his side sit down. 

To patient faith the prize is sure ; U 

And all that to the end endure I 

The cross, shall wear the crown. | 

The great mysterious Deity, I 

We soon with open face shall see — 1 

The beatific sight j 

Shall fill heaven's sounding courts with praise, 
And wide diffuse the golden blaze 

Of everlasting light. 

In hope of such ecstatic joys, 
Jesus, we now sustain the cross, 

And at thy footstool fall ; > i 

Till thou our hidden life reveal — ^ 

Till thou our ravished spirits fiUj I 

And God be all in all! 



OF MISSIONS. 49 

To estimate aright, therefore, the will of 
God in this decree; and the results of this 
decree in the souls already actually given to 
Christ; and to estimate aright the future 
results of this decree in the coming triumph 
of the gospel, we must add to all the Chris- 
tians now on earth, all who have ever been 
upon earth, and every one of whom — not 
one lost or missing — are now in heaven. 
And still further, in estimating what the 
gospel, as the power of God and the wisdom 
of God unto salvation, can now do, and 
what it can accomplish for the generations 
following, we must lift up our heads and be- 
hold that great cloud of witnesses who now 
surround us in heaven, and who, through 
faith and patient obedience, have inherited 
all the promises, and are now enjoying that 
eternal weight of glory, which is so uuspeak- 
able, that while here below neither eye saw, 
nor ear heard, nor did it enter into their 
hearts to conceive it. 

Come, brothers! let us onward; 

Night comes without delay, 
And in this howling desert 

It is not good to stay. 
5* 



50 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE I 

Take courage and be strong; -,; 

We are hasting on to heayen ; | 
Strength for warfare will be given, 

And glory won ere long. ' 

The pilgrim's path of trial | 

We do not fear to view ; | 

We know his voice who calls ns — ^: 

We know him to be true. 

Then let who will contemn, 

Come, strong in his Almighty grace, 
Come, every one with steadfast face ! 

On to Jerusalem! .|j 

brothers, soon is ended ] 

The journey we've begun; j 

Endure a little longer — 
The race will soon be run. 

And in the land of rest — 

In yonder bright eternal home 

Where all the Father's loved ones come^ 

We shall be safe and blest. 

Then, boldly let us venture ! 

This, this is worth the cost: 
Though dangers we encounter, 

Though every thing is lost, 
world! how vain thy call! 

We follow him who went before, 

We follow, to the eternal shore, 
Jesus, our all-in-all. 



OF MISSIONS. 51 



THE FULFILMENT OF THIS DECREE AND OF GOD'S PLAN, 
IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF HIS CHURCH. 

From such a survey of the actual working 
of God's decree, and of what has been ac- 
complished under it in ages past, God's will 
— including both his purpose and his plan — 
in the establishment of Zion as the church 
or kingdom of Christ is made unmistakably 
plain, and our faith and obedience as indubi- 
tably certain. The church of God implies 
the existence of heathen, and of heathen in 
remote and distant lands, even to the utter- 
most parts of the earth. The decree of 
God in setting up Christ as the king of 
Zion, evidently presupposes such a fallen 
and apostate condition of humanity as ori- 
ginates the abominable system of idolatry, 
with all its defiance of God, and its temporal 
and everlasting destruction of the well-being 
of man. And hence the word of God 
regards sin as rebellion against the govern- 
ment and laws of God. It declares enmity 
to God to be the spirit of every natural 
heart, and traitorous disloyalty to be the 



52 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

characteristic of the human race under all 
its manifestations. 

It was in full view of all this sad apos- 
tasy, that God established his throne in 
Zion. Here he manifests himself in Christ 
for the restoration and reconciliation of the 
world. Here Christ reigns. Here he pro- 
mulgates God's purposes and plan of mercy, 
and the way of salvation. Here a welcome 
reception is given to every returning sinner, 
who is willing to lay down the weapons of 
his rebellion, and bow to the sceptre of 
God's rightful dominion. And from Zion 
go forth the messengers of the King of 
peace, into every valley, and to every moun- 
tain top, preaching the glad tidings, and 
publishing peace, he that heareth saying. 
Come, and every man saying unto his 
neighbour. Know thou the Lord, until all 
shall know him, and every knee shall bow 
to him, and every tongue confess that he 
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

Thy name we hallow, and adore, 
Praising thee for evermore. 
And hasten till thy kingdom come, 
Which is our eternal home. 



OF MISSIONS. 53 

!May we till that blest palm be won, 
On the path of duty run, 
With angels and archangels high, 
And the heavenly company; 

Singing of thine immortal love, 
As thine angels sing above. 
daily from the angelic hall. 
This life giving food let fall; 

And knit us in the holy tie 

Of never failing charity. 

That from thine own parental sway, 

Naught may lead our feet astray ; 

Ever attuned in heart to sing, 
Thee our everlasting King. 
"Whose glory is our home on high. 
And his name best Panoply. 

THE ADAPTATION OF THE CHURCH TO THE FULFIL- 
MENT OF GOD^S DECREE. 

Such IS Zion. It is God's appointed 
instrumentality for the subjugation of a 
rebellious world; for the overthrow of the 
kingdom of darkness; for the reconciliation 
of apostate men; for their restoration to 
the image and glory of God; and for their 
translation to that heavenly kingdom, where 
they shall reign as kings and priests unto 
God for ever. 



64 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

Now, let US take any one point of time, 
and any one spot of earth, and let this 
kingdom be established there, and this 
gospel be known there, and this decree of 
God be proclaimed there, and we at once 
perceive that by the very necessity of the 
case, this central luminary radiates outwards 
to those who are still heathen, even to the 
uttermost parts of the earth- — that is, to 
those parts of the earth which are outermost 
from that centre. And we are plainly 
taught by God, that it was for this very 
purpose that such church was established, 
God placed it where it is, in the centre of 
its own particular orbit — ^just as he did the 
sun, and the moon, and the stars — to give 
light unto all. For this very end and no 
other, were that particular church, and the 
church universal — which is the sum of all 
particular churches — ordained and establish- 
ed on the poles of truth, and in the sphere 
of sinful humanity, that they might each 
one, according to their ability, irradiate its 
darkness with the light of the glorious 
gospel of the blessed God. 



OF MISSIONS. 55 

And hence in David's time Zion had its 
central throne in Palestine; and Europe, 
Great Britain, and America were, relatively 
to it, heathen, and at the uttermost ends of 
the earth. At earlier periods Zion had a 
different centre, different radii, and a differ- 
ent circumference. At other periods it had 
several centres, like the several planets of a 
system, from each of which the light diffused 
itself, and the sound of the gospel went forth 
into all the region round about. After the 
resurrection of Christ, and his ascension to 
heaven, and his bestowment of celestial gifts 
— inspiration, miracles, ordinances, officers, 
and above all others in glory and import- 
ance, the influence of the Holy Ghost — these 
centres of spiritual life and light were kin- 
dled not only in Palestine, not only in Asia, 
not only in Italy, but in Spain also, in 
Britain, in India, in China, and in whatever 
countries were then the uttermost parts of 
the earth. And ^ it has been ever since, 
and is now, with varying fluctuations accord- 
ing to the faith and obedience of those to 



66 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

"whose instrumentality the extension of the 
gospel has been committed. 

Ye captains of a heavenly liost ; 

Ye princes of a heavenly hall — 
Stars of the world, in darkness lost, 

And judges at its funeral; 

Lights rising o'er a wintry night, 

With tidings of eternal youth ; 
On error's long bewildered sight, 

Emerging with the lamp of truth. 

Captains, but not of spear and shield. 
No rebel host with steel to tame, 

Nor arms of eloquence to wield; 

Nought but the lowly cross of shame. 

The chain is riven, and broke the rod, 
The world's long stern captivity; 

And men are free to serve their God, 
Whose yoke alone is liberty. 

To distant lands His heralds fleet, 
By God's mysterious presence led; 

How beauteous ars their passing feet, 
Like morn upon the mountain spread! 

To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 

All glory be, as was «if old, 
Who calleth men, in darkness lost, 

His saving glory to behold."^ 

* A hymn of the Ancient Church. 



OF MISSIONS. 67 

WHAT THE CHURCH ACCOMPLISHED OF OLD, AND IS 
STILL ABLE TO PERFORM. 

The church, as the pillar and ground of 
truth, is therefore the visible embodiment of 
God's will to a world, lying in wickedness, 
rebellion, and guilt. It is the standard of 
the cross planted on Immanuel's ground; on 
that territory which has been purchased and 
watered by his precious blood. It is the un- 
furling of his banner; the rallying point of 
his soldiers; the centre of operations in 
whatever territory of the kingdom of dark- 
ness it exists. And for the fulfilment of this 
mission, it is the power of God, mighty 
to the pulling down of the strongholds of 
sin and Satan. The church is to the world 
what Israel was to the surrounding king- 
doms. To it were given the oracles and 
ordinances of God. In it were found the 
tabernacle, and the sanctuary, and the altar, 
and the ark of the testimony, and the Shek- 
inah, and the pillar of cloud and fire. 
Around these were gathered, in their tents 
and tribes, the chosen people. With that 
people these signs of heaven abode, and 
6 



58 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

when by God's order these signs of his pre- 
sence, these pledges of his power were 
moved, then also Israel moved. With these 
evidences of God's presence and power 
around thera, Israel fought and conquered 
until the whole promised land was subdued, 
allotted, and inhabited, and God's throne 
was established on Mount Zion. The centre 
of God's Jewish Zion was, therefore, origin- 
ally in Egypt, afterwards at the Red Sea, 
again in the wilderness, in Edom, and in 
Canaan. But every where that Zion and 
the people who composed it were the same, 
and their ultimate end and purpose the 
same, and their mode of accomplishing that 
end was the same. 

Now what Zion did for Israel, it has 
accomplished every where, and at all times, 
and for every nation. It lifted them up from 
the depth of degradation and depravity. It 
enlightened, elevated, and refined them. It 
multiplied them as the stars of heaven. It 
made them courageous, patriotic, and victo- 
rious. It stimulated them to industry and 
healthy activity. It encouraged commerce 



OF MISSIONS. 59 

and fostered art. It diffused education and 
gave birth to poetry, eloquence, and true 
philosophy. It made Israel the envy of all 
other nations, and *the exemplar of all true 
national glory and prosperity. So long as 
it existed in purity and power, and so far as 
its legitimate purpose and spirit were mani- 
fested, God's ancient church accomplished 
all these results. And it secured all these 
results by accomplishing what was its chief 
end, that is, the preservation and the pro- 
mulgation of the gospel. Indeed the whole 
history of the Jewish people is an intended 
exemplification of God's will and man's duty; 
of God's mercy and man's misery; of the 
nature and design of the church and of the 
gospel entrusted to its instrumentality; of 
faith as the principle, and obedience as the 
life of missions; and of the inseparable 
connection between fidelity and success; 
between disobedience and calamity; between 
spirituality and power; between piety and 
prosperity; between zeal for God's glory 
and man's salvation, and the enjoyment of 
God's favour and blessing in this present 



60 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

life, and of glory, honour, and immortality, 
and proportionate recompense in the life 
everlasting. 

In Israel stood God's ancient throne, 

He loved that chosen race; 
But now he calls the world his own, 

And heathens taste his grace. 

Christ's mediatorial work expressly designed 

FOR ACCOMPLISHING GOD's DECREE. 

The church then is God's will and decree, 
revealed and made the basis of our faith and 
obedience, that through his church might be 
made known to the heathen, and to the very 
uttermost parts of the earth, his manifold 
wisdom and grace in the gospel of his Son. 
This is God's own chosen way, and his only 
appointed way of saving souls; of preaching 
the gospel, and of reclaiming his enemies. 
This is the kingdom given to his Son, and 
founded on his mediation, incarnation, and 
sacrifice. It was in obedience to God's will 
and commandment Christ became the Saviour 
of the world, the propitiation for sin, the 
founder of his church, the King of Zion, the 



OF MISSIONS. 61 

ruler and commander of his loyal subjects, 
the Captain of salvation, the conqueror of 
Satan, and the supreme judge and avenger 
of all finally impenitent enemies. This was 
that will of God which Christ tells us he 
came to do. This was God's commission 
which Christ came to execute. This was 
the will of God, to do which was Christ's meat 
and drink while carrying on and finishing 
"the work God gave him to do." "This is 
the will which was supreme with Christ in 
the garden of Gethsemane, and nerved his 
soul for the horrors of the cross; the will 
for which he was born; that will of God 
for which he died ; for which he rose again ; 
for which he lives and reigns; for which he 
saves, sanctifies, and redeems sinners; for 
which he rules in the armies of heaven, and 
among the inhabitants of earth, making all 
things conspire to the furtherance of the 
gospel, and the fulfilment of his plans."* 

^ The reader will, I hope, read and digest Dr. Thorn- 
well's discourse, The Sacrifice of Christ the Tyj)e and 
Model for Missionary effort, from which I quote. 

6* 



62 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

Christ came not to be the Messiah of the 
Jews, but the Saviour of the world — not to 
redeem, regenerate, and restore Israel, but 
to "draw all men unto him;" to gather 
unto him a glorious church, from among all 
people, and kindreds, and tribes, to receive 
in short the heathen for his inheritance, and 
the uttermost parts of the earth as his pos- 
session. In comparison with this glorious 
result God regards the establishment of the 
visible church, and of its various Christian 
institutions and advanced civilization, as but 
of small account. "It is a light thing," 
says God to Christ, "that thou shouldest be 
my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, 
and to restore the preserved of Israel; I 
will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, 
that thou mayest be my salvation to the ends 
of the earth. And in the last day the 
mountain of the Lord's house shall be 
established in the top of the mountains, and 
shall be exalted above the hills, and all na- 
tions shall flow into it. And he shall judge 
among the nations. And the Lord alone 



OF MISSIONS. 63 

shall be exalted in that day. And the idols 
he shall utterly abolish!'"'' 

Christ only, of Grod's messengers to man, 
Finished the work of grace, which he began; 
E'en Moses wearied upon Nebo's height, 

Though loth to leave the fight 
With the doomed foe, yielded the sun-bright land 

To Joshua's armed hand. 

And David wrought in turn a strenuous part. 
Zeal for God's house consuming him at heart; 
And yet he might not build, but only bring 

Gifts for the heavenly King; 
And these another reared, his peaceful son, 

Till the full work was done. 

List, Christian warrior! thou, whose soul is fain 
To rid thy Mother of her present chain; — 
Christ will exalt his church; yea, even now 

Begins the work, and thou 
Mayest spend for it thy life, but, ere he come 

Thy lot shall be the tomb. 

THE WILL OP GOD IS THE FOUNDATION OF OUR KNOW- 
LEDGE OF GOD, AND OF OUR OBEDIENCE TO HIM. 

Such then is the will of God respecting 
the conversion of the world, so far as that 

* See Butler's Summary of the Bible revelation in the 
Analogy. Part ii. Chapter 7th. 



64 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE * 

will is revealed. This revealed will of God, j 
therefore, is undoubtedly the source of all 
our relations to him, as the Father, Son, 

and Holy Ghost, uniting in one mysterious ; 
counsel, and in offices of ineffable love, for 
the redemption of an apostate world. This 
will of God to show mercy and not wrath, 

induced him to make known the mystery of j 

godliness, hidden for ages in the infinite ' 

depths of his incomprehensible nature. And | 
this revealed will of God is also the sum of 

all our divine knowledge. This will, and ] 

this alone, creates therefore all our obliga- j 
tions and duties; gives origin to faith and 

hope; to peace and joy; to confidence and ^ 

expectation; to love and labour; to sacri- \ 

fice and service. This will determines what ] 

is truth; what is faith; what is obedience; j 
what is the nature of piety; what is the life 

of piety; what is the final end and purpose i 

of piety; what are the laws of growth and . 

maturity to piety; and what shall be the j 

abiding fruits of piety in its everlasting i 

recompense. J 



OF MISSIONS. 65 

My Saviour calls, faith bids me rise 

And calmly do my best; 
Leaving to him, with silent eyes 

Of hope and fear, the rest. 

I step, I mount where he has led; 

Men count my hal tings o'er; 
I know them; yet, though self I dread, 

I love his precept more. 

All questions beyond this revealed will 
of God, are among the secret things still 
reserved in the arcana of the divine mind. 
They cannot affect what is revealed. They 
cannot alter, amend, or contradict it. They 
cannot become the ground of faith, or the 
authority for obedience. They are not only 
beyond our cognizance, they are wisely 
and purposely withheld and kept in abey- 
ance. They are not intended to be known, 
nor to be comprehended, nor to be made 
the basis either of practical faith, or of 
actual obedience. They are laid under a 
divine interdict. To pry into them is sin. 
To demand their revelation is impious pre- 
sumption. To assume to know and under- 
stand them is infatuated folly. And to act 
upon them, and not to obey what is revealed, 



• ft 

f 

66 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE '; 

under a pretended compliance with what is 
not revealed, is fanaticism and treasonable 
disobedience. 

DiflSculties there may exist both in the 
way of faith and obedience to this will of 
God, but difficulcies do not affect positive 
knowledge. Trials may lie like so many 
obstacles in our way, but trials do not weaken 
truth. Conflicting demands upon our time, 
talents, obligations, and services, will pre- 
sent their urgent claims, but these do not 
neutralize the supreme will and demands of 
God. In regard to Christian missions there- 
fore — while there are a thousand perplex- 
ing questions, and innumerable, and in many 
cases insurmountable difficulties — and while, 
so far as permitted, selfishness, and carnal 
wisdom, and national partiality, and imme- 
diate local interests, (in themselves good and 
great,) will multiply diflSculties and dis- 
couragements, and while some men will 
even boldly and blasphemously deny both 
that faith which is the principle of missions, 
and that obedidence which is the life of 
missions, yet, nevertheless, the counsel of 



I 



OF MISSIONS. 67 

the Lord standeth sure, and that counsel 
alone shall stand. There is, therefore, and 
can be, but one question to every faithful 
heart, on this and every other practical sub- 
ject, and that is, "What is the will, and 
wish, and word of God?" 

might we know, for sore we feel 

The languor of delay, 
When sickness lets our fainter zeal, 

Our foes block up the way. 

Lord, who thy thousand years dost wait 
To work the thousandth part 

Of thy vast plan, for us create 
With zeal — a patient heart. 

OBEDIENCE TO THIS DECREED WILL OF GOD THE EVI- 
DENCE AND END OF PIETY. 

The will of God as it regards the conver- 
sion of the world, and the instrumental 
agency by which it is to be accomplished, are, 
we have seen, indubitably plain. The king- 
dom of Christ, composed of all who profess 
to receive and believe on him, is established 
for the express purpose of carrying into 
effect the decreed will of God — that the 
heathen shall be given to Christ for his 



68 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

inlieritance, and the uttermost parts of the 
earth for his possession. This is the chief 
end and purpose of every church, and of 
every Christian. To secure this end, God 
has evidently adapted the gospel, and the 
church, and the ministry; and to this end 
also has God adapted every Christian, both 
by the natural and spiritual nature he has 
imparted to him. For what is the essence 
of Christian piety, but conformity in nature, 
disposition, and desires, to God as manifested 
in Christ? And the very character of 
Christian life, what is it but sympathy with 
Christ in doing the will of God for the 
redemption of the world; in seeking and 
saving the lost; in preaching the gospel to 
every creature; and in doing good unto all 
men, as we have opportunity and ability? 

Prove thou thy words, the thoughts control 
That o'er thee swell and throng; 

They will condense within thy soul, 
And change to purpose strong. 

But he who lets his feelings run 

In soft luxurious flow, 
Shrinks when hard service must be done, 

And faints at every woe. 



OF MISSIONS. 69 

Faith's meanest deed more favour bears, 
Where hearts and wills are weighed, 

Than brightest transports, choicest prayers, 
Which bloom their hour and fade. 

Was it not for this end God sent Christ 
into the world — that the world through him 
might be saved? Was it not for this end 
Christ came into the world, and laid down 
his life — that whosoever believeth in him 
might not perish, but have everlasting life? 
Was it not for this cause the Holy Spirit, 
the Comforter, was given unto the world — 
that the world through him might be con- 
vinced, converted, and saved? Love to God, 
love to men, and the desire by every sacri- 
fice and service which God could render, to 
deliver men from the awful consequences of 
sin, and to expel it from the kingdom of 
God, these unquestionably are the moral 
elements which enter into the gospel, and 
the whole scheme of salvation. Reunion 
with God through faith in Christ, and sanc- 
tification of the Spirit, will, therefore, as- 
suredly implant these principles in the 
believing heart. The love of God in giving 
7 



70 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

Christj the love of Christ in giving himself, 
and the love of the Spirit in enkindling love 
to both, cannot fail to awaken love to our 
fellow-men; love to the whole race of men; 
love to that w^orld which God loved; for 
which Christ became a propitiation, and for 
which the Spirit works; and love to men in 
their highest character and greatest need — 
that is, to men as immortal, and as exposed 
to everlasting misery. 

This is the will of God, and this must be 
the will of all who love God. This was the 
spirit of Christ, and this must be the spirit 
of all his followers. This is the love of the 
Spirit, and this love must witness with our 
spirits that we are, indeed, the children of 
God. God's will to save the world led him 
to give his only begotten Son, and to work 
for its redemption hitherto in all the works 
of creation, providence, and grace. Christ's 
will led him to give himself a ransom and a 
redeemer, and ever to live, and reign, and 
work for the furtherance of his glorious gos- 
pel. And the will of the Holy Spirit led 
him to work in the hearts of all who believe 



OF MISSIONS. 71 

to will and to do accordiDg to God's merciful 
designs. Union, therefore, to Christ implies 
and requires union with him in his Spirit, in 
his love to God, in his abhorrence of sin, in 
his sacrifice, in all his designs and desires 
for the perfect consummation of God's de- 
cree, and for the complete fulfilment of his 
glorious inheritance, when the heathen and 
the uttermost parts of the earth shall be 
given to him for his possession, and when 
"all the ends of the world shall remember 
and turn unto the Lord ; when all the kindreds 
of the earth shall worship before him, and 
when the kingdom shall become the Lord's, 
and he shall be the governor among the 
nations." Ps. xxii. 

Behold, lie comes ! Christ nearer draws, 

And to his glorious mission cause 
Welcomes his own with words of grace and might: 

** Peace be to you!" — their peace, who stand 

In sentry with God's sword in hand, 
The peace of Christ's loved champions warring in his 
sight. 

"Peace be to you!" — their peace, who feel 
E'en as the Son the Father's seal, 
So they the Son's; each in his several sphere 



72 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

Gliding, on fearless angel wing, 
One heart in all, one hope, one King, 
Each an apostle true, a crowned and robed seer. 

Sent as the Father sent the Son, 

'T is not for you to swerve nor shun 
Or power or peril; ye must go before — 

If caught in the fierce bloody shower, 

Think on your Lord's o'erwhelming hour; 
Are ye not priests to Him who the world's forfeit bore? 

The will of God, revealed as the ground 
of faith, and the law and measure of obe- 
dience, is not, then, it will be seen, revealed 
merely for the salvation of Christian nations, 
but also for the salvation of the heathen to 
the uttermost parts of the earth. This is 
the will and the work of God, on which he 
has set his heart, and to secure which he in- 
vokes the cooperation of all who love and 
obey him. 

This is the end and aim of the Church, 
and of the gospel, and of every Christian. 
They are as light, as leaven, as servants, 
as co-workers with God, as an holy priest- 
hood — that whatever position they providen- 
tially occupy, they may employ their means, 
their prayers, their influence, and their ex- 



OF MISSIONS. 73 

ertions, to the extent of self-denying sacrifice^ 
in order to impart the knowledge of salva- 
tion to the heathen, and to the uttermost 
parts of the earth. 

Lord ! when sin's close-marshalled line 

Urges thy witness on his way, 
How should he raise thy glorious sign, 

And how thy will display ! 

Thus holy Paul, with soul of flame, 
Eose on Mars' Hill, a soldier lone ; 

And thus preach we the atoning name, 
Though but with hearts of stone. 

OPPOSITION, DISOBEDIENCE, OR INDIFFERENCE TO THIS 
WILL OF GOD, IS SIN. 

We have seen, then, what is God's will. 
Man is God's creature. Life is God's gift. 
Faculties of body and mind, opportunities 
for employing them, influence and means of 
doing good, all are God's talents! And 
what man ought to be, what a man ought to 
believe, and what a man ought to do, is 
clearly determined by God's will as revealed 
for his guidance. 

But sin has originated an opposite will. 

Satan rules in the hearts and minds of unre- 

7* 



74 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

newed men. The lust of the eyes, the lust 
of the flesh, and the pride of life have be- 
come governing principles to the world Ijing 
in rebellious wickedness, in allegiance to 
Satan, and in enmity to God. Every man 
is, therefore, put to the test whether he will 
serve God or Mammon, whether he will live 
for self or Christ, whether he will be for 
Christ or against him, and whether he will 
take his present portion, and his future and 
everlasting recompense with the kingdom of 
the saints of the Most High, or look for his 
enjoyment in the good things of the present 
life; or whether he will make the equally 
fatal, and still more common attempt to 
serve both God and Mammon, and while 
keeping on good terms with the world, and 
securing as much as possible of its present 
recompense, render unto God a partial ser- 
vice, give to him a nominal obedience, offer 
unto him easy and convenient sacrifices of 
means and influence, and then hope for the 
full recompense of an exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory in heaven. 



OF MISSIONS. 75 



OUR OBEDIENCE OR DISOBEDIENCE TO THIS WILL OP 
GOD TO SAYE THE HEATHEN, IS OF MOMENTOUS AND 
PERILOUS CONSEQUENCE. 

The position of every man, as related to 
this kingdom and will of God, is, it will be 
thus apparent, one of momentous conse- 
quence. It involves his life. It is the actual 
condition of his being. He must act one 
way or the other — he cannot be neutral. 
The world is in a state of apostacy and re- 
bellion. The very throne and life of God 
are assailed, and a conspiracy lurks in every 
heart, and traitors are found even under the 
garb and profession of friends. Now, it is 
the object of the whole Bible to disclose 
the nature, and extent, and malignity of 
this unnatural wickedness; and it is God's 
determination, as there disclosed, to over- 
throw it by the moral power of his gospel, 
and if that is rejected, by the whole force 
of his infinite wrath. Christ is therefore 
exalted to the throne. His church — -the 
Christian association, the great missionary 
society — is instituted. And as in the time 



76 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

of William III., and in the period of our 
own revolutionary struggle, and as in every 
period of civil war, or foreign invasion, 
every true and faithful citizen has been ex- 
pected, and even required to associate him- 
self with those who pledge life, and honour, 
and service to the public good, so it is in this 
spiritual contest, and as it regards the do- 
minion and throne of the Redeemer. To 
'him every knee is required to bow, and every 
tongue to confess, and every loyal subject 
invoked to enrol himself in his divine associa- 
tion, to deny himself, to forswear all other 
lords, and to follow Him by a hearty, zealous 
devotion to his cause, and opposition to his 
enemies. 

The mystery of iniquity, and the mystery 
of God's plan for its destruction shall be 
finished, as God hath declared to his servants 
the prophets, when this kingdom shall no 
longer be left to other people, nor to partial 
development, but when judgment shall be 
given to the saints, and they shall reign, and 
the kingdom, and dominion, and the great- 
ness of the kingdom shall be given to the 



OF MISSIONS. 77 

people of the saints of the Most High, and 
Jesus shall reign from shore to shore, and 
from the rising to the setting sun. 

It is surely then a perilous thing for any 
man to be found, either secretly or openly, 
either partially or unreservedly, either in 
heart or in life, opposed to this kingdom of 
Christ, and to this will and decree of God- 
that by the preaching of the gospel the hea- 
then shall be given to Christ as his inherit- 
ance, and the uttermost parts of the earth 
for his possession. 

The decree offers no alternative but sub- 
mission and cooperation— with the blessing 
of Christ on earth and future glory; or of 
opposition and indifference — with Christ's 
derision here on earth, and everlasting 
destruction from the presence of the Lord, 
and from the glory of his power in his hea- 
venly kingdom. He that is not with him, is, 
he declares, against him. ''He being made 
perfect through suffering became the author 
of eternal salvation to all them that ohey 
him, and he shall reign till he hath put all 
enemies under his feet." ''For this man, 



78 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

after he had offered one sacriiBce for sin, for 
ever sat down on the right hand of God; 
from henceforth expecting till his enemies 
be made his footstool. For by one offering 
he hath perfected for ever them that are 
sanctified." 

That we may hallow thy great name, 
Lay on our lips thine altar flame ; 
And that from thee no more we roam, 
Thy kingdom come. 

For only they, who do thy will, 
Shall thine eternal kingdom fill, 
Then may we throughout this night 
Walk in thy light. 



MOST DANGEROUS DELUSION. EVERY MAN REQUIRED 
TO OBEY. 

This subject, we fear, is even yet very 
imperfectly understood and very inadequately 
realized by Christians, and of course utterly 
misconceived by the world. Missions to the 
heathen are too generally considered as a 
scheme of man, and not as the decree and 
will of God. The extension of the gospel to 
the uttermost parts of the earth is regarded 



OF MISSIONS. 79 

as a magnificent but Utopian enterprise of 
enthusiastic spiritual knight-errantry, and 
not as the destined purpose of God the 
Father, secured by covenant to God the Son, 
and carried into effect by the mighty power 
of God the Holy Spirit. And the accom- 
plishment of this decree and will of God is 
considered as a consummation which only 
the will and power of God miraculously em- 
ployed can ever effect, and not as a result to 
be accomplished by Zion, on which Christ's 
throne is established; in which he reigns; 
of which he is the head ; in which he dwells 
by his Spirit and presence; to which he has 
given the gospel, and the commission to go 
and preach it to every creature; and with 
which in the prosecution of this agency, and 
only in so doing, he promises to be always, 
to the end of the world. 

The truth then is, that every man must be 
a subject of this kingdom of Christ, or perish 
with his enemies, and that every man who is 
a member of the kingdom of Christ is re- 
quired by the decree and will of God to offer 
prayer continually that this kingdom may 



80 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

come, until the heathen shall be given to 
Christ for his inheritance, and the uttermost 
parts of the earth for his possession. In 
other words the will of every Christian must 
be the will of God. The great end and 
object of his life must be the decreed purpose 
of God. That on which God has set his 
heart must engross the heart of the Chris- 
tian. That for which Christ died and rose 
again, the Christian must live and die to 
accomplish. That for which the Father loves 
the Son, and by which the Spirit glorifies the 
Son, every Christian must love and count 
his glory. 

FAITH IN god's WILL TO CONVERT THE HEATHEN WILL 
LEAD TO OBEDIENCE. WHERE THERE IS NOT OBEDI- 
ENCE, THERE IS NOT FAITH. 

Faith in God's will, which is the spirit 
of piety, is therefore the spirit of missions. 
Obedience to God's will, which is the life of 
piety, is the life of missions. And missions 
are just as truly the very spirit and life of 
piety, and the unbelief and disobedience 



OF MISSIONS. 81 

which are the destruction of missions, are at 
the same time the destruction of piety. 

*'Sit thou here," is the will of God to the 
exalted Redeemer, who having finished his 
work of redemption is now for ever set down 
at God's right hand. ^'Sit thou here till I 
make all thine enemies thy footstool/' This 
is a renewal in heaven of the decree declared 
on earth, another seal affixed to it, and a 
standing evidence that it is immutably cer- 
tain that Christ shall reign until, through the 
agency of his church and people, every enemy 
has been subdued, and his gospel has been 
preached as a witness unto all nations. 

Thy walls are strengtli, and at thy gates 
A guard of heavenly warriors waits; 
Nor shall thy deep foundations move — 
Fixed on his counsels and his love. 

Thy foes in vain designs engage ; 
Against his throne in vain they rage ; 
Like rising waves, with angry roar 
That dash, and die upon the shore. 

Now "to them that believe," this will of 
God, this exaltation and dominion of Christ, 
and this destined universality and triumph 
8 



82 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

of the gospel is precious; but unto them 
that stumble at the word, being disobedient, 
this will of God is made a stone of stum- 
bling, and a rock of offence, over which 
they shall fall into the destruction pre- 
pared for the devil, and for all God's adver- 
saries. 

Faith in this will of God leads, therefore, 
to that obedience by which it is accomplished, 
and not to believe both in the will and in 
the agency by which it is to be fulfilled is 
itself disobedience. To believe and obey,, 
to disbelieve and disobey, are so essentially 
connected as cause and effect, as principle 
and practice, that they are often employed 
as synonymous. Unbelief is the source of 
all disobedience, just as faith is of all work. 
Faith casts down all lofty, self-opinionated, 
and proud imaginations, and brings the very 
thoughts, desires, and the will itself, into the 
obedience of Christ; and not to believe is, 
therefore, to remain in a state of rebellion 
and opposition. But it is more. It is itself 
the great rebellion. It is the most bold and 
daring act and exhibition of disobedience, of 



OF MISSIONS. 83 

refusing to perform the will and work of 
God. For '' this is the work of God, that ye 
believe/' "The obedience of faith*' is the 
highest act of confidence, of worship, of sub- 
jection to God. And not to believe is to 
become "children of disobedience — of "un- 
persuadableness," as it may be rendered, 
that is, of those who will not be convinced 
and converted, and made willing subjects 
of Christ, and who shall therefore "be 
damned.'* 

Unbelief is thus seen to be the parent of 
disobedience, and both together constitute 
the highest aggravation of human depravity 
and guilt. They reject overtures of mercy, 
and of honourable reconciliation with God. 
They exalt man, and dethrone his Maker. 
They substitute self for God; self-will for 
God's will; man's opinions for God's de- 
crees; self-interest in things present and 
earthly for things everlasting and divine; 
self-aggrandizement for the glory of God 
and the advancement of his cause. Self, in 
short, is made a God, and God an idol. The 
Bible is rejected, or set aside as a dead 



84 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

letter; and God is made a liar — a deceiver 
— an unjust or arbitrary sovereign, whose will 
ought to be disobeyed. 

Let this truth then be imbedded in the 
very foundation of our heart's creed. Let it 
become a first principle, as indeed it is, of 
the oracles of God. Let it become a first 
principle in our mental and spiritual habits 
— an axiomatic, intuitive belief. Let it 
imbue our minds, and energize our wills, and 
give sovereignty to our conscience, and im- 
part tone and temper to our whole lives. 

Gird on thy sword, victorious Prince, 

Eide with majestic sway; 
Thy terror^ shall strike through thy foes, 

And make the world obey. 

Thy throne, God, for ever stands. 

Thy word of grace shall prove 
A peaceful sceptre in thy hands, 

To rule the world by love. 

DIFFICULTIES ARE NO EXCUSE FOR DISOBEDIENCE. 

A thousand difficulties will arise to inter- 
fere with and prevent a willing obedience to 
the heavenly calling ; but this is God's will. 



OF MISSIONS. 85 

that the heathen should be given to Christ, 
and the uttermost parts of the earth as his 
possession. A thousand questions and con- 
troversies may be originated about the hea- 
then — their responsibility, character, and 
doom — but this is God's will. A thousand 
claims of home, and family, and church, and 
country, will demand your time, your purse, 
your interest, and zeal, and sacrifice; but 
none of these claims, nor all combined, can 
interfere with the will and decree of God, 
that the heathen shall be given to Christ for 
his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of 
the earth for his possession, nor with the 
divine requirement, that this decree shall be 
carried into efi'ect by Christ's believing and 
obedient people. 

There can therefore be no truth, no faith, 
no obedience, no safety, no hope, no pros- 
perity, no full and final recompense, where 
the will of self, or family, or friends, or 
church, or country, is allowed to interfere 
with and set aside the will and command of 
God, to preach the gospel to every creature 
8* 



86 



until the heathen shall be given to Christ, 
and the uttermost parts of the earth for his 
possession. 

And as a man may even be finally saved, 
and yet "suffer loss," and behold his many 
selfish hopes and schemes burnt up and 
destroyed, and he himself only saved so as 
by fire, to become one of the least in the 
kingdom of God, and reap sparingly, and 
shine faintly in the firmament of heaven ; 
therefore, let every minister, elder, and 
church-member lay it to heart, that his 
faith, if genuine, must be the spirit of mis- 
sions; that his obedience, if sincere, must be 
the life of missions; and that in all he does, 
for self, or home, or church, or country, he 
must aim supremely at what is the supreme 
will and decree of God, that the heathen 
may be given to Christ for his inheritance, 
and the uttermost parts of the earth for his 
possession. 

Christ's everlasting messengers, 

Still from the opening skies, 
Traverse the earth like showers of light, 

And sow heaven's mysteries. 



OF MISSIONS. 87 

The things discerned by seers of old, 

Behind the shadowy screen, 
In the full day are now beheld, 

With not a veil between. 

The things which God as man hath done, 

Which man as Grod hath done, 
Speak ye, as God commands, to all 

Who see the circling sun. 

Though far in space and clime apart, 

One Spirit sways you all ; 
Through whom in heaven's blest characters, 

Men hear the living call. 

Glory to God, the Three in One, 

All glory be to thee, 
Who from their darkness callest men, 

Thy glorious light to see.* 



GOD S DECREED WILL MAKES FAILURE IMPOSSIBLE. 

God's decree is the law of this spiritual 
kingdom. It combines his will and his 
power. It is his expressed will, and his ex- 
erted power. It is, therefore, to this spirit- 
ual kingdom what the laws of gravitation, 
attraction, and repulsion are to his physical 

* Ancient Hymn. 



88 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

kingdom. It is universal, invariable, funda- 
mental. It is necessary. It excludes all 
ideas of contingency, irregularity, and 
caprice. It is independent, and far above 
all human interference, or Satanic hin- 
derance. God has willed that it shall be so, 
and God's power secures that it will be so. 
It is the fixed and unchangeable law of the 
kingdom; and the history of the kingdom, 
and the innumerable multitude already re- 
deemed by it from among men, and the mil- 
lions now passing through it to the kingdom 
of heaven, evince the presence of God's un- 
alterable will, and irresistible power. 

This kingdom then must universally ex- 
tend just as certainly as the sun must con- 
tinue to rise and set, and in its course 
irradiate with its light, and enliven with its 
heat, all the nations of the earth. The one 
is the type, and emblem, and pledge of the 
other. 

Arm of tlie Lord, awake, awake ! 

Put on thy strength ^ — the nations shake! 
And let the world, adoring, see 

Triumphs of mercy wrought by thee. 



OF MISSIONS. 89 

Say to the heathen from thy throne 

"I am Jehovah — God alone!" 
Thy voice their idols shall confound, 

And cast their altars to the ground. 

No more let human blood be spilt — 

Vain sacrifice for human guilt! 
But to each conscience be applied 

The blood that flowed from Jesus' side. 

Arm of the Lord, thy power extend; 

Let Mahomet's impostures end; 
Break superstition's Papal chain, 

And the proud scoffer's rage restrain. 

Let Zion's time of favour come; 

bring the tribes of Israel home : 
And let our wondering eyes behold 

Gentiles and Jews in Christ's one fold. 

Almighty God, thy grace proclaim, 

In every land of every name ; 
Let adverse powers before thee fall, 

And crown the Saviour Lord of all. 



god's plan in carrying out his decree not man's 
plan, but the best plan, as it makes obedience 

DEPEND SOLELY ON GOD's WILL. 

But God*s will as revealed does not teach, 
nor lead us to expect, that this universality 
of the kingdom of Christ shall be immediate, 



90 



uniform, and constant. It does not define 
the time of this restitution of all parts of 
this apostate world. It does not exclude 
variations and vicissitudes in its outward 
visible development. It does not render 
defeats less possible than triumphs, nor 
retreats and retrograde movements less likely 
than onward progress and victorious enter- 
prises. On the contrary, God revealed as 
what would certainly transpire, all the muta- 
tions, the decline, and fall, and rising again 
— all the disasters and defeats that have 
actually taken place. The present aspect 
and condition, the present dangers and 
duties of the church; the difficulties that 
exist within her from wordliness, and secta- 
rianism, and error; and the difficulties that 
environ her on every side, from false Chris- 
tianity, false religions, and temporal dynas- 
ties — these are all distinctly revealed. They 
are all depicted by the infallible pen of 
prophetic inspiration. They are, therefore, 
a confirmation of the decree and will of God. 
They are in accordance with it, and indeed 
a part of it. And instead, therefore, of 



OF MISSIONS. 91 

being any ground for unbelief, and disobe- 
dience, they are an additional ground for 
faith, and a powerful motive to obedience. 
They do not excuse, they condemn indiffer- 
ence. They make neutrality treason, and 
inactivity unfaithful stewardship — a base 
betrayal of our solemn trust, and of our 
plain and undeniable obligations. 

The law of the church is fixed. The 
instrumentality of the church is fixed. The 
duty of every Christian man and woman is 
fixed. The gospel is in our hands, and it is 
there that it may be put into the hands of 
every creature. The inheritance has been 
conveyed to us, and it is ours in trust to be 
imparted by us to the uttermost parts of the 
earth, until they too shall become Christ's 
possession, and those now heathen shall 
also have become his inheritance. 

This then is our duty as plainly as the 
result is God's will and decree. Our agency 
is as plainly God's appointed means for the 
fulfilment of his decree, as that decree 
is plainly revealed and visibly manifested. 
Duty is ours, and the event is God's. Obe- 



92 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 



dience is ours, and success and recompense 
are the Lord's. And whatever may be the 
result of our labours, and whatever may be 
the failure or success of missions in our day, 
of one thing the word and will of God 
assures us, and that is, that the gospel will 
yet be preached in all the world; and that 
every eflfort, every prayer, every sacrifice of 
money, of children, of time, of influence, and 
of talents, for the furtherance of this glorious 
consummation, will accomplish some present 
good; will encourage and stimulate others 
by example; will feed and fan the flame of 
piety at home, in our hearts, and homes, 
and churches; will sow the seed of future 
exertions and success; and will entail a 
blessed recompense in the world of light 
and glory. 

Give to the winds thy fears, 

Hope, and be undismayed; 
God hears thy sighs, and counts thy tears, 

God shall lift up thy head. 

Through waves, and clouds, and storms, 

He gently clears the way: 
Wait thou his time ; so shall this night 

Soon end in joyous day. 



OF MISSIONS. 93 

Still heavy is thy heart? 

Still sink thy spirits down? 
Cast off the weight, let fear depart, 

And every care be gone. 

What though thon rulest not? 

Yet heaven, and earth, and hell 
Proclaim God sitteth on the throne, 

And ruleth all things well. 

Leave to his sovereign sway, 

To choose and to command; 
So shalt thou, wondering, own his way, 

How wise, how good his hand! 

Far, far above thy thought. 

His counsel shall appear. 
When fully he the work hath wrought, 

That caused thy needless fear. 

And on the other hand, it is* just as cer- 
tain that every effort that might be made to 
accomplish this will and decree of God, 
but which is withheld; every cold and selfish 
preference of home, and every refusal to 
live and labour for the conversion of the 
world, will tend to spiritual poverty both 
here and hereafter, and bring down upon us 
the fearful curse, ^' Curse ye Meroz, curse 
the inhabitants thereof, because they came 
9 



94 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

not up to the help of the Lord — to the help 
of the Lord against the mighty." 

God's will and power are the only forces 
in nature, in providence, and in the king- 
dom of grace. ''Everywhere there is pre- 
sent God acting, not at random, but by law, 
on principle, and with fixed design. There 
is a plan in his working, a distinct, and by 
us undiscoverable plan based on law, and 
an extended system of laws. He sees for- 
ward, and his far-seeing eye connects the 
end with the beginning. His agency is a 
vast, complicated, but harmonious whole, 
throughout which we trace not only one 
mighty hand, but one unerring mind." 

The ultimate and universal diffusion of 
the gospel, and the extension of the kingdom 
of Christ to the ends of the earth, are em- 
braced in God's plan, based on God's decree, 
and carried forward by his power and 
wisdom, in his own way, and in accordance 
with his own manifold wisdom and purposes. 
But what these ways are, and what in any 
circumstances may best advance his ends, 
and secure the greatest good, we are alto- 



OF MISSIONS. 95 

gether incapable of determining. *'We do 
not/' says Butler, ''know what we are about 
when we endeavour to promote the good of 
mankind in any ways but those which he has 
directed." Our short and limited views, our 
narrow prejudices, and selfish feelings, ren- 
der us incapable of acting beyond the known 
will of God. On this rest all our obliga- 
tions, and by this alone are we guided — like 
soldiers in the midst of a wide spread battle, 
or labourers in some extensive building, to 
that course of action which will best secure 
the designed result. 

God moves in a mysterious may, 

His wonders to perform; 
He plants Jiis footsteps in the sea, 

And rides upon the storm. 

Deep in unfathomable mines 

Of never-failing skill, 
He treasures up his bright designs, 

And works his sovereign will. 

His purposes will ripen fast, 

Unfolding every hour ; 
The bud may have a bitter taste. 

But sweet will be the flower. 



96 OBEDIENCEj THE LIFE 

Blind unbelief is sure to err, 

And scan his work in vain; 
God is his own interpreter, 

And he will make it plain. 

It is, therefore, unspeakable presumption 
in any man to determine that God's plan 
for the UNIVERSAL diffusion of the gospel 
can be best secured by his devoting his ener- 
gies to the promotion of personal, local, or 
national evangelization, to the exclusion of 
that which is universal, and which aims at 
giving the heathen to Christ for his inherit- 
ance, and the uttermost parts of the earth 
for his possession. This latter alone is 
God's plan, God's will, God's command, and 
God's way of best securing his blessing on 
all other efforts. And in order, therefore, 
to manifest the highest exercise of faith and 
obedience, as good soldiers and efficient 
co-workers of God, we must, while strenu- 
ously labouring to promote every grace in 
our own hearts, and pure and undefiled reli- 
gion in our families, in our church, and 
throughout the length and breadth of our 
whole country, we must fight manfully, and 



OF MISSIONS. 97 

labour diligently, to do good unto all men, 
and to preach the gospel to every creature. 
*' There is that scattereth and yet increaseth, 
and there is that withholdeth more than is 
meet, and it tendeth to poverty." "Go ye 
into all the world, and preach the gospel to 
every creature," — and then in so doing — 
*'lo, I am with you always, even unto the 
end of the world." 



ALL KINGDOMS AND EVENTS SUBORDINATE TO GOD'S 
WILL, DECREE, AND CHURCH. 

But here it will be objected, that after all, 
this will and decree of God has been very 
partially fulfilled at any time, or in any 
country. For while the converts gathered 
into the kingdom of Christ on earth, and in 
heaven — including among the latter the 
whole number of those who have passed from 
earth in a state of infancy, idiocy, and every 
other form of irresponsible personal agency 
— have been innumerable, still the greater 
number of the adult population of the globe 
9* 



98 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

have never given evidence of any such spi- 
ritual change. 

Now this objection would have great weight 
if God's decree implied the immediate and 
universal establishment of Christ's kingdom, 
or the universal conversion and salvation of 
all who are subjected to Christ. But it im- 
plies neither the one nor the other. ''The 
kingdom of God, the King himself has 
declared, is not a fabric, but a growth ; its 
beginning is a little seed, which a bird might 
easily devour; its end is a waving tree, in 
whose branches the birds of the air may 
come flocking to build their nests. Such is 
the life of the church on earth; finished and 
perfect in its divine beginning, but only as a 
germ is perfect, not to be finished and per- 
fect, as a tree is perfect, till human history 
has run its entire course, and the trumpet 
of the archangel announces the final judg- 
ment. Twelve men were the beginning of a 
kingdom, which has gone victoriously down 
the ages, and over the continents, and 
amongst the races of men, slowly but surely 
subduing all things to itself, till now, if Cel- 



OF MISSIONS. 99 

sus himself, who once derided the idea of a 
universal religion, could reappear in history, 
he would have to confess that the standard 
of the cross bids fair to be planted, sooner or 
later, over all the earth." 

The decree and the kingdom both imply 
enemies who shall not submit, but shall be 
destroyed. Rebellious opposers are referred 
to in this decree as plainly as gracious sub- 
jects. The heathen shall rage. The kings 
of the earth shall set themselves against 
God's anointed. The people shall imagine a 
vain thing. The great mass of any popula- 
tion may take counsel together. They may 
break asunder the bands with which God 
would in mercy bind them, and cast away 
the cords with which Christ in love would 
draw their reluctant hearts. But he that 
sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The 
Lord shall have them in derision. Then 
shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and 
vex them in his sore displeasure. He will 
break them with a rod of iron. He will 
dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. 
All that are incensed against him shall be 



100 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

ashamed. Unto him every knee shall bow, 
every tongue shall swear, and his enemies 
become his footstool. 

The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness 
thereof. God has given to Christ *' power 
over all flesh, that he should give eternal 
life to as many as he has given him.'* *' And 
he shall judge among the nations, and shall 
rebuke many people." Nations and kings are, 
therefore, under Christ's dominion, though 
they may remain enemies to his kingdom, 
and strangers to his salvation. They all 
enter into the drama, and conspire to work 
out the glorious consummation. So runs the 
decree: "Be wise now therefore, ye kings; 
be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve 
the Lord with fear, and rejoice with tremb- 
ling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and 
ye perish from the way, when his wrath is 
kindled but a little. Blessed are all they 
that put their trust in him." 

But does history confirm such prophecy? 
do its facts sustain the decree? And is 
the course of time resolvable into any plan, 
and consistent with any ultimate purpose of 



OF MISSIONS. 101 

the universal triumph of Christ's kingdom? 
Who can doubt it? "If this world," as it 
has been eloquently said,"^ "does not exist 
for purposes of the church, then it exists by 
accident and at random. If the history of 
this world be not the history of the kingdom 
of Christ, the Redeemer, then it is but the 
history of confusion, and chaos, and utter 
nothingness. Bring to mind some of the 
prominent facts in this matter: First, You 
have God's own promise to his church ages 
on ages ago : The nation and Tcingdom that 
will not serve thee shall perish^ yea^ those 
nations shall be utterly wasted. Trace the 
march of that church in the light of that 
promise, or rather prediction, as she comes 
in contact with the successive mighty empires 
of the East and the West — the Egyptian, 
the Assyrian, the Babylonian, the Medo- 
Persian, the Alexandrian, the Roman. The 
office of each, in relation to her, was clearly 
indicated, and their conduct and consequent 

* From a very profound article on Prophecy an 
Argument for Christianity, in the Princeton Review for 
October, 1857, read after ours was delivered. 



102 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

fate, all are made known in these predictions, 
and illustrated in parallel lines in their 
history. Egypt was the nursery and school 
to the infant church, where by the discipline 
of centuries a handful of nomadic shepherds 
were to be transformed into a nation of 
civilized men, governed by regular laws, 
living in fixed habitations, possessed of all 
those multiform arts, and habits, and appli- 
ances, that should fit them for their new 
career in their own land, and when this 
office is discharged, and she begins to regard 
this people as her own, and resist God's 
commands in regard to them, he brings 
them out of her with a high hand and out- 
stretched arm. Assyria he uses as a scourge 
and a rod to his rebellious people, though it 
was not in the heart of the king, nor did he 
think so, and when that purpose was sub- 
served, the indignation of God laid Nineveh 
in the grave. Babylon was the prison-house 
in which the Jews were cured of their appa- 
rently incurable idolatry, and the nation of 
Israel was utterly dissolved. Cyrus and his 
dominion were made the deliverers of God's 



OF MISSIONS. 103 

church, and the avenger of her wrongs on 
Babylon. And when that empire had grown 
hostile to the purposes it was raised up to 
subserve, it was shattered to atoms by the 
conquering power of Alexander. His con- 
quests in their turn spread the Greek lan- 
guage and culture over all the East, and 
prepared the way for the diffusion of the 
gospel in that tongue, wherever Jews were 
dispersed that spoke and read the Greek 
language. To Rome was assigned the work 
of making commerce free and intercourse 
safe, of teaching the idea of law to a barba- 
rian world, of binding together discordant 
nationalities and races in one vast dominion, 
and affording safe conduct for the preachers 
of the religion of Christ through all the 
Eoman world. And when she was no longer 
needed for this purpose, when her civilization 
became effeminate and corrupt, and her reli- 
gion superstitious, she went down before the 
hardy nations from the woods of Germany. 
Thus one by one were these great empires 
raised up to minister, in their several ways, 
to God's church, and as they turned against 



104 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

her, and became unfit to advance her in- 
terests, were laid in the grave by a resistless 
hand. 

"Look at the space covered by these ful- 
filled predictions — Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, 
the empire of Cyrus, and of Alexander and 
Rome, Judea and its peculiar people, with 
all their strange, deathless history, and all 
the lands and people bordering upon that 
land; and since the coming of the Son of 
God, the church in all lands, and that great 
usurpation, or parody of the church, the 
shadow it should cast on the depravity of 
man, and the malignity of the Devil. Take 
these from the map of the world, and what 
would be left? Take these from human 
history, and what would history be? It is 
most manifest that the central current of 
human history has flowed over these lands, 
and through these channels of national life. 
Then the broad, stupendous fact is, that all 
these vast affairs have been moulded and 
controlled by the spirit and power of pro- 
phecy. In the path of that prophecy lie the 
graves of these greatest of earthly powers and 



OF MISSIONS. 105 

dominions, speaking in eloquent death and 
ruin to all coming generations. It is the 
inarch of God through the ages we see thus 
opened before our eyes, and the graves of 
nations, and the tombs of cities are the 
luminous steps of his course and his judg- 
ments, where the light of his presence still 
lingers. What is a man, a city, a nation, in 
the presence of such a God, and in the way 
of his purposes? What is there that stands 
safe, and has charter to life and continuance 
in the coming ages, but his church, and 
whatsoever shall minister to her glory and 
expansion? Who is safe but within her? 
From God she came — to heaven she is 
bound — like the ark of Noah, bearing all of 
life that is to live from the old world to the 
new.'' 

Great God, whose universal sway 
The known and unknown worlds obey, 
Now give the kingdom to thy Son; 
Extend his power, exalt his throne. 

Thy sceptre well becomes his hands ; 
All heaven submits to his commands ; 
His justice will avenge the poor, 
And pride and rage prevail no more. 

10 



106 

With power lie vindicates the just, 
And treads the oppressor in the dust; 
His worship and his fear shall last, 
'Till hours, and years, and time be past. 

As rain on meadows newly mown, 
So shall he send his influence down; 
His grace on fainting souls distils. 
Like heavenly dew on thirsty hills. 

The heathen lands, that lie beneath 
The shades of overspreading death, 
Revive at his first dawning light; 
And deserts blossom at the sight. 

The saints shall flourish in his days. 
Dressed in the robes of joy and praise; 
Peace, like a river, from his throne 
Shall flow to nations yet unknown. 

THE SUBLIMITY AND ETERNAL RECOMPENSE OF IMPLICIT 
FAITH AND OBEDIENCE TO GOd's WILL, AND OF 
LABOURING FOR MISSIONS UNDER GREAT DISCOURAGE- 
MENTS. 

Of all possible exercises of faith, implicit 
faith in this decree of Grod, and in this com- 
mission of his church, is the most noble, 
because the objects of it, the heathen and 
the uttermost parts of the earth, are invisible 
— out of sight — distant — unworthy in them- 



OF MISSIONS. 107 

selves considered — indifferent, and even op- 
posed to the requisitions and character en- 
joined by the gospel. It is written, "blessed 
are they who, having not seen, nevertheless 
believe.'' And Abraham is the father and 
pattern of all believers, because he obeyed, 
and he went out not knowing whither he 
went. He hoped against hope. Therefore 
sprung there of one, and him as good as 
dead, as many as the stars of the sky in 
multitude, and as the sand which is by the 
seashore innumerable. 

Of all the manifestations of such implicit 
obedience now possible to the believer, a 
faithful, persevering, and zealous compliance 
with this will of God is the most grateful 
and emphatic manifestation of the spirit and 
temper of a loving child, a devoted servant, 
a loyal subject, and a valiant and successful 
soldier. And the reasons are these ; because 
this obedience is rendered against the inter- 
posing claims of self, and kindred, and home, 
and church, and country; because it is exhi- 
bited in the midst of unbelieving and per- 
haps opposing friends, and of too many 



108 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

unbelieving and lukewarm professors of reli- 
gion. "Ye are my friends if ye do whatso- 
ever I command you/' and in 

*'Tliat great, that awful day, 
"When man to judgment wakes from clay," 

he that, in this life, hath forsaken father or 
mother, or houses, or lands, or fortune, or 
the favour of men ; yea, who has given even 
a cup of cold water for Christ's sake and 
the gospel's, shall receive an hundredfold, 
and be encircled with a crown of righteous- 
ness, amidst the welcoming plaudit of his 
approving King and Judge. " Hath the Lord 
as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacri- 
fices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? 
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and 
to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebel- 
lion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubborn- 
ness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because 
thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he 
hath also rejected thee." 

<<The man that offers humble praise, 

Declares my glory best ; 
And those that tread my holy ways, 
Shall my salvation taste." 



OF MISSIONS. 109 

And surely if there is under heaven a 
spectacle that should stir all the anxieties 
and sympathies of a believer, it is that of a 
world which has been ransomed by blood- 
shedding, but which, nevertheless, is over- 
spread with impiety and infidelity. The 
Christian is the man of loyalty and upright- 
ness forced to dwell in the assemblings of 
traitors. With a heart that beats true to the 
King of kings, and Lord of lords, he must 
tarry among those who have thrown off alle- 
giance. On all sides he must hear the plot- 
tings of treason, and behold the actings of 
rebellion, and the revelries and orgies of 
debruted outcasts. And can he fail to 
be wrought up to a longing effort to arrest, 
in some degree, the march of anarchy, and 
to bring beneath the sceptre of righteous- 
ness this revolted, and ruined population? 
Can he be an indifferent and cold-hearted 
spectator of the despite done to God's 
authority, and laws, and to the ignominy 
cast upon God's infinitely great and gra- 
cious Son; and shall there be no throbbing 
of spirit, and no yearning of mind, over 
10* 



110 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

millions of his race, who, though redeemed 
by the propitiation of Christ, are living and 
dying without God and without hope in the 
world? no!"^ "We do but reason from 
the most invariable and well-known princi- 
ples of our nature, when we argue that, as a 
loyal and loving subject of Christ, the 
believer must glow with righteous indignation 
at the bold insults offered to his Lord, and 
long to bend every faculty and power to the 
diminishing the world's wretchedness by 
overcoming its rebellion." 

But to do this alone, uncheered and unap- 
plauded; to do this while others do it not; 
to be faithful among the faithless found ; to 
be zealous while others are lukewarm ; to be 
self-denying while others seek their own 
things; to be self-sacrificing while others 
live to please only themselves; to persevere 
when others go back, cowardly, and faint- 
hearted; to follow Christ's standard through 
evil and through good report, through defeat 
and victory; to pursue the routed hosts of 
the enemy, "faint, yet still pursuing;" to 

^ Modified from a passage in Melville. 



OF MISSIONS, 111 

appear as the champions of God's cause, 
when that cause is on the point of being 
universally deserted; to take joyfully the 
spoiling of goods, and count not life itself 
dear for Christ's sake — this truly is to glory 
in the cross, to have fellowship with Christ 
in his suJBfering, and in his obedience even 
unto death, and in his exaltation to glory. 

Stand up, and bless the Lord, 

Ye people of his choice ; 
Stand up, and bless the Lord your God, 

With heart, and soul, and voice. 

Though high above all praise, 

Above all blessing high, 
Who would not fear his holy name, 

And laud and magnify ? 

! for the living flame, 

From his own altar brought, 
To touch our lips, our minds inspire. 

And wing to heaven our thought! 

God is our strength and song. 

And his salvation ours; 
Then be his love in Christ proclaimed. 

With all our ransomed powers. 

Stand up, and bless the Lord, 

The Lord your God adore ; 
Stand up, and bless his glorious name, 

Henceforth for evermore. 



112 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

The promise runs thus : " Them that hon- 
our me, I will honour. And to him that 
is faithful unto death, I will give a crown of 
life. And they that are wise and faithful 
in winning souls to the Redeemer, shall shine 
as the stars in heaven for ever and ever.'' 
And with the heart given to Christ, fired 
with his love, and fixed in his promises, and 
animated with the assurance of heaven, there 
should be a feeling in every Christian bosom, 
that times in which Christ's cause and king- 
dom are the most disastrously impeded, are 
the very times in which zeal should be warm- 
est, and our sacrifices greatest. Then it is 
that champions are most needed, and that 
victory will be most triumphant. Then 
it is of all other times, that faith must 
prove itself the principle of missions, and 
obedience the life of missions; and that 
gathering victory from defeat, and confidence 
from despair, we exultingly exclaim: "God 
is our refuge and strength, a very present 
help in trouble : therefore will not we fear, 
though the earth be removed, and though 
the mountains be carried into the midst of 



OF MISSIONS. 113 

the sea; though the waters thereof roar and 
be troubled, though the mountains shake 
with the swelling thereof. Selah. There is 
a river, the streams whereof shall make glad 
the city of God, the holy place of the taber- 
nacles of the Most High. God is in the 
midst of her; she shall not be moved: God 
shall help her, and that right early. The 
heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved; 
he uttered his voice, the earth melted. The 
Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob 
is our refuge.* Selah. Come, behold the 
works of the Lord, what desolations he hath 
made in the earth. He maketh wars to 
cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh 
the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; h^ 
burneth the chariot in the fire. Be still, and 
know that I am God; I will be exalted 
among the heathen, I will be exalted in the 
earth. The Lord of hosts is with us; the 
God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. 

When we cannot see our way, 
Let us trust, and still obey ; 
He who bids us forward go, 
Cannot fail the way to show. 



114 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

Though the sea be deep and wide, 
Though a passage seem denied; 
Fearless let us still proceed, 
Since the Lord vouchsafes to lead. 

Though it seems the gloom of night, 
Though we see no ray of light; 
Since the Lord himself is there, 
'Tis not meet that we should fear. 

Night with him is never night. 
Where he is, there all is light; 
When he calls us, why delay ? 
They are happy who obey. 

Be it ours, then, while we're here, 
Him to follow without fear! 
Where he calls us, there to go. 
What he bids us, that to do. 



THE APPEAL — AFRICA — INDIA — AND THEIR MARTYRS. 

This cause is the cause of God against sin 
and Satan. God is our helper, and Christ, 
who is our king, is also our leader and com- 
mander. Like David, his type and figure, 
he stands not idly by. He will not be a 
spectator merely. He is the Captain of our 
salvation. He leads the columns and directs 
the movements of his sacramental host. He 



OF MISSIONS. 115 

is still the "captain of the host of the Lord/' 
as when he revealed himself to Joshua; and 
his presence is still power and victory. His 
voice is heard in the thickest of the fight, 
shouting, "Come after me/' "Follow me." 
His sword, which is the sword of the Spirit, 
flashes bright beams of light to his friends, 
and of terror to his enemies. And his ban- 
ner "woven of the precious fabric of love,'* 
inscribed with the symbol of the dove, and 
having for its motto "peace on earth, and 
good will to men,'' is that sign under which 
none ever marched to dishonour and defeat. 
The cause may be driven back, but not 
destroyed. It may be so assailed in one 
point, as even to fall back and become in- 
volved in confusion and rout. Satan may 
gain temporary and great advantage as now 
in India, by the explosion of his long-ma- 
tured plans, and his magazines of dreadful 
wrath. He may even appear to reign iu 
undisturbed triumph as he does upon the 
ruins of buried Christianity in Africa, and in 
the East. But that buried Christianity shall 
yet be raised to a glorious resurrection. God 



116 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

has not left himself without witnesses to his 
truth and faithfulness. He has not forgot- 
ten his covenant. The last remains of mar- 
tyred saints lie buried in the soil of India and 
of Africa, and of Asia Minor — lands planted 
and harvested by Apostolic missionaries — 
pledges of their future restoration, seeds of 
a future harvest, and seals of an everlasting 
covenant. Like withered trunks and dis- 
membered branches of the tree of life, these 
long forgotten witnesses shall, with the scent 
of living water, and the dew of divine grace, 
live and flourish again in immortal vigour. 
Look we to Africa ! There 

The lions prowl around, their graves to guard, 

And Moslem prayers profane 
At morn and eve come sounding: yet unscared 

The Holy Shades remain: 
Cyprian, thy chief of watchmen, wise and bold. 

Trusting the lore of his own loyal heart. 
And Cyprian's Master, as in age high-souled, 

Yet choosing as in youth the better part. 
There, too, unwearied Austin, thy keen gaze 

On Atlas' steep, a thousand years and more, 
Dwells, waiting for the first rekindling rays. 

When Truth upon the solitary shore 
For the fallen West may light his beacon as of yore. 



OF MISSIONS. 117 

Voice of tlie wise of old! 

Go breathe thy thrilling whispers now, 
In cells where learned eyes late vigils hold, 

And teach proud science where to veil her brow. 

Voice of Christ's martyred clan! 

Now while the church for combat arms, 
Calmly do thou confirm her awful ban, 

Thy words to be her ponquering, soothing charms. 

Voice of Christ's fearless saints! 

Ring like a trump, where gentle hearts 
Beat high for truth, but, doubting, cower and faint: 

Tell them the hour is come, and they must take their 
parts. 

Let that trump, brethren, arouse the Is- 
rael of God, while it shakes with terror and 
dismay the enemies of the truth. Let it 
assure us that the Lord of hosts is with us, 
and that these walls of Jericho, these walls 
of China, these Moslem revolts, these Satanic 
outbursts of the great adversary, who sees 
that he has but a short time — shall only re- 
dound to the greater glory of our Immanuel, 
and the greater triumph of his saints. 

Bide thou thy time! 
Watch with meek eyes the race of pride and crime, 
Sit in the gate, and be the heathen's jest, 

11 



118 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

Smiling and self-possest. 
thou, to wliona is pledged a victor's sway, 
Bide thou the victor's day! 

Patience is gain; 
Wait the bright Advent that shall loose thy chain! 
E'en now the shadows break, and gleams divine 

Edge the dim distant line. 
When thrones are trembling, and«earth's great ones quail, 

True Seed! thou shalt prevail! 

Are there not even now signs of an ap- 
proaching harvest? Has not the germ of 
many a seed manifested its vitality and 
sprouted up in the blade, the ear, and the 
ripened grain, o'er many a palmy plain. 
God's way is now most surely in the East. 
India and China are now the centre of 
divine operations. God had made them a 
spectacle to the world. 

The Ark of God is in the field, 
Like clouds around the alien armies sweep; 

Each by his spear, beneath his shield. 
In cold and dew the anointed warriors sleep. 

And can it be thou liest awake, 
Sworn watchman, tossing on thy couch of down, 

And doth thy recreant heart not ache. 
To hear the sentries round the leaguered town? 



OF MISSIONS. 119 

0, dream no more of quiet life, 
Care finds the careless out; more wise to rouse, 

Thine heart entire to faith's pure strife; 
So strength will come, and glory crown thy brow. 

"These are times," wrote one of our mar- 
tyred missionaries in her last letter, "when 
we are all very near to God, and are all 
waiting upon him in prayer, to see what he 
will do for us.'' 

Speaking of a fellow sufferer : 

" They knew the evening before of the out- 
break at Mynpurie, but would not tell us, 
that we might have a quiet night. They 
sat up all night, watching for the least sound, 
and would have sent to us instantly. She 
said she never spent happier hours than 
these were ; and when the tidings came that 
the danger was removed, for a time at least, 
she said that she had a sort of unwilling feel- 
ing, as if she was ^ being brought bach to the 
world.' 

" And now, dear ma, I have told you a long 
story. . . . I know that you will rejoice with 
me when I tell you that my faith in God's 
goodness has never failed me. And ^I will 



120 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my 
fortress, my God, in him will I trust.' And 
like the Psalmist, I am sure I could say 
most truly that I was delivered from the 
terror by night.' I was alarmed, but I 
had no overwhelming fear, certainly not of 
death. I tried most devoutly to realize that 
perhaps a few hours might bring me to the 
end of life, and I was not afraid to die, if I 
knew my own heart. I had a horror of 
seeing violence and bloodshed, and of the 
sufferings of others; and there was a dread 
occasioned by uncertainty that w^as very 
trying; ... but I was not so terrified that 
my mind was distracted from the contempla- 
tion of divine things, God's goodness hither- 
to, and the bliss of heaven. 

''Since writing the above, news has come 
to us of new mutinies, and we are pre- 
pared to flee to the fort. Though they gave 
us a room where we could lie down and rest, 
we could not think of sleep — who could, with 
a drawn sword at one's side, and expecting 
every moment to hear a cannon sound an 
alarm ! God only knows if this will reach 



OF MISSIONS. 121 

you. All our hope is in him. Heaven, not 
this world, is our lasting home." 

Hear another voice from the graves of 
these martyred missionaries. It is as fol- 
lows: 

"On Tuesday, June 9th, we went down 
again, at an early hour, to our house outside 
the fort. Dreadful tidings from all quarters. 
Satan is triumphing and rejoicing over all 
the wickedness; but his reign will be only 
for a season : for of this we are all sure, that 
He, who has bruised the serpent's head, will 
be the conqueror. We believe most cer- 
tainly that this time of distress is only a 
means in the hand of God for bringing the 
Mohammedans and Hindus more speedily to 
the knowledge of their crucified Saviour. 
0, that his kingdom of peace might quickly 
come!" 

How vivid is this living picture of the pro- 
phecy, the warfare, and the promise ! 

When the true soldiers steal an hour 

To break the bread of life, 
And drink the draught of love and power, 

And plan the holy strife. 

11* 



122 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

Hear once more the noble testimony of 
Mrs. Freeman, one of our Christian sisters, 
and one worthy of the best age of the mar- 
tyrs; and we trust hers was the feeling of all 
the missionaries of our church. In imme- 
diate sight of appalling danger, she was en- 
abled to write these ever memorable words: 
"Our little church and ourselves will be 
the first attacked: but we are in God's 
hands, and we know that he reigns. We 
have no place to flee to for shelter, but under 
the covert of his wings, and there we are 
safe. Not but he may suffer our bodies to 
be slain; and if he does, we know he has 
wise reasons for it. I sometimes think our 
deaths may do more good than we could do 
in all our lives; if so, his will be done. 
Should I be called to lay down my life, do 
not grieve, dear sisters, that I came here; 
for most joyfully will I die for him who laid 
down his life for me.'' God be praised for 
this testimony ! 

But let us listen again, and what do we 
hear ? It is the inspiring sound of that sub- 
lime argument and triumphant euthanasia of 



OF MISSIONS. 123 

the Apostle. It is the trump of the arch- 
angel, and the life and immortality of the 
gospel. They are words of life in the very 
midst of death. It is the Christian mis- 
sionary reading the burial-service over him- 
self, and a party *bf his doomed brethren, 
"who then shook hands with each other, and 
were immediately shot ! 

Thus have perished hundreds of Christian 
men and women, and thousands, probably, of 
native Christians, not counting their lives 
dear unto them for the testimony of Jesus.* 

^ The Rev. Mr. Hay denies having heard of any- 
native converts who had renounced the faith. The Eev. 
Mr. Pourie, of the Free Church Mission, Calcutta, in a 
letter to one of the missionaries at Madras, gives the 
following deeply interesting and encouraging facts re- 
garding the trials of some of the converts of the Mission, 
and their devoted adherence to Christ amid very severe 
persecution for his blessed name. 

** We have had (says Mr. Pourie) some gratifying in- 
stances of the staunchness of our native converts. At 
Allahabad, one of them employed on the railway 
mounted guard regularly as a volunteer in the fort, 
and came down in the steamer the other day as a sort 
of protection to the ladies. Another, with his wife and 
two little children, was stripped naked by the mob in 
some of the villages, and after being brought before the 



124 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

These native Christians were, in many eases, 
seized and tortured to make them renounce 
Christianity. They were forewarned of 
mutilation and death, and their wives and 

Moulvie, who was leading the ^rebels there, he firmly 
resisted every attempt to get him to recant. The Moul- 
vie questioned him about the number of converts he had 
made at his mission station (Futtehpore,) argued with 
him, threatened him in vain. He was four or five days 
in the stocks, naked in the blazing sun, with only a little 
grain and water, before he was rescued. His wife, too, 
was equally firm. He was one of the earliest con- 
verts of our mission here, but has been for many years 
labouring in connection with our American Presbyterian 
brethren in the Northwest, where he is widely known 
and much respected both by natives and Europeans. 
Had it not been for his desire of the eclat of making 
such a man embrace Mohammedanism, no doubt the 
Moulvie would have killed him at once, or allowed the 
infuriated rabble to do so." 

We have also a very touching account of a native 
preacher, Walayat Ali, who was held in great estima- 
tion by the missionaries : 

" After Delhi had been long vacant by the death of 
brother Thompson, the brethren there, as well as our- 
selves, felt anxious to see the station re-occupied, and 
after several visits we determined to send a native 
preacher until a European missionary was appointed by 
the Home Committee. Walayat Ali appeared most fit 



OF MISSIONS. 125 

children were brought before them, and 
threatened with horrors not to be mention- 
ed ; and all these evils would be escaped if 
they would only read the Mohammedan con- 
fer the position, and was eventually chosen to fill it. 
When I asked him to go, he hesitated for some time; 
he knew well the dangers and difficulties he should have 
to graiDple with, and the peculiar hatred of the Moham- 
medans to any one who had left their ranks, and he 
might well hesitate before he undertook such an arduous 
task. When once, however, the path of duty had been 
ascertained, he consulted no more with flesh and blood, 
but declared to me his readiness to go, though he might 
be called to lay down his life for his Lord and Saviour. 
When he bade a sorrowful good-by to us at Chitoura 
with his interesting family, little did I expect how soon 
he would be called to the presence of his Lord in the 
martyr's chariot of fire. I visited him at Delhi when 
other duties permitted, and often preached with him to 
large and attentive crowds of people in the Chandni 
Chouk Bazar and other great thoroughfares, and I 
heard, the last time I was there, that his influence was 
being felt among the respectable Mohammedans, and 
that one of the princes from the palace paid him an oc- 
casional visit during the darkness of the evening. There 
can be no doubt that many in Delhi who had failed to 
stop his mouth by fair argument, were too ready to stop 
it by the sword, as soon as the dread of British power 
was removed, and hence I conclude the towns-people, 



126 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

fession " God is great, and Mahomet is his 
prophet/' but they steadfastly refused, and 
preferred to die. Such a testimony in India 
is worth all that the mission has cost. 

(who knew him, and not the sepoys from Meerut, who 
could not know him,) on the breaking out of the insur- 
rection rushed on and cut him down; and Silas, an eye- 
witness, who escaped to Agra, says, that between every 
cut of the sword his murderers said, 'Now preach to 
us, now preach to us;' and I trust his innocent blood 
will speak to them, and remind them of his warnings 
and teachings. The blood of the martyrs will again, I 
doubt not, be the seed of the church, and a brighter day 
dawn on India. It is said his wife, whose name is 
Fatima, and his daughter, are in prison; and should I 
be spared to meet them on my return to India, I shall 
try to give a more extended account of our much 
lamented brother, whose two sons were killed before 
his face. That these fearful events may rouse the 
Church to larger efforts and more prayer for the con- 
version of India, is the hope of. 

Yours, faithfully, 

James Smith." 

English Baptist Herald, Oct. 1857. 

CONSTANCY OF NATIVE CHRISTIANS. 

The Bombay Guardian, after giving an account of an 
attack made on native Christians lately in Bombay, and 
referring to the general bitterness felt towards them at 



OF MISSIONS. 127 

But before leaving these scenes of horror, 
let us turn our eyes on that group of mourn- 
ers. It is a new-made grave. An aged 
woman is kneeling beside it, with her head 

present as a class, pays the following tribute to their 
constancy and their services : 

"Is it not a fact that we are indebted to native Chris- 
tians for the discovery of several deep-laid plots in 
different parts of India, since June last ? The Moham- 
medan plot organized on Monghyr and Patna, and ex- 
tending to we know not what places beside, which was 
to have been carried out on Buckree Eed, was brought 
to light through the agency of a native Christian. The 
Belgaum and Dharwar conspiracy, connecting itself 
with Poonah, and possibly with other places, the carry- 
ing out of which might have imperilled the entire Presi- 
dency, was brought to the knowledge of the authorities 
by a native Christian. Other facts of a similar kind 
may be added, if we mistake not, to this list. We are 
not aware that there has been a single instance of a 
native convert joining the mutineers, even to save his 
life. Should such instances come to light, we could not 
greatly wonder, seeing that an Englishman, once a non- 
commissioned officer in the Company's army, was con- 
spicuous among the defenders of Delhi, and was killed 
in the ranks of the mutineers. But, as we said, no such 
fact is reported of any native Christian, though it may 
be that nearly a thousand of them have been put to 



128 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

laid thereon. Beside her is a middle-aged 
woman, with her pallid lips touching the con- 
secrated earth, while three sweet children 
stand silently and sorrowfully around. All 

death for their religion since the commencement of the 
mutinies." 

About twelve miles from Cawnpore, on the Ganges, 
was residing an adopted son of the late Mahratta 
Peishwa Bajee Rao. This man, Nena Sahib, had re- 
ceived an English education on government principles, 
i. e. without Christianity; was a great favourite with 
English people ; was fond of accompanying gentlemen 
on hunting excursions, and very fond of giving cham- 
paigne parties, and having gentlemen and ladies dine in 
his palace. In short, he was a splendid specimen of a 
native gentleman, educated on the principles of the 
government of the East India Company. When trouble 
was threatening at Cawnpore, Nena Sahib promised to 
afford every protection to the ladies and gentlemen 
whose society had afforded him so much enjoyment on 
the chase and at his table. He had been allowed 
by government to keep on his estate at Bithoor, a 
park of artillery and a considerable body of troops. 
When the outbreak occurred, his confiding European 
friends sent for his assistance. He came and took com- 
mand of the revolted troops, and headed the rebellion. 
The combined rebellious forces for twenty days kept up 
almost an incessant fire on the beleaguered garrison. 
The loss of the garrison in killed, as well as from sick- 



OF MISSIONS, 129 

are weeping. Yes, even in that dark land, 
where the missionary had taught them about 
Jesus who loved, and wept, and died for sin- 
xiers — bitter tears now fell upon that mission- 

ness and wounds, must have been fearful. The barrack 
is said to have been riddled and ruined by round shot, 
and the roof all knocked in. No one could even go to 
the well for water without being exposed to the enemy's 
fire. For several days the inhabitants of the garrison, 
gentlemen and ladies, men, women, and children, had 
nothing to eat but grain soaked in water. At length, 
on the 27th of June, they capitulated to Nena Sahib, 
and agreed to leave the place and proceed in boats to 
Allahabad. Nena Sahib promised, with an oath, taken 
over Ganges water, to give them a safe passage down 
the river. The evening was occupied in evacuating the 
entrenchment, and embarking the ladies and children 
on the boats which Nena Sahib had provided. All the 
Europeans spent the night on board the boats. Early 
the next morning the boats were loosened, and a start 
was made. The sepoys on shore beckoned to the boat- 
men to come ashore, which they instantly did. Then, 
from a battery which had hitherto remained concealed, 
a most murderous fire opened on the Europeans in the 
boats. Many jumped into the water, and attempted to 
escape to the other side of the river ; but troopers were 
at hand, who cut them all up. Several gentlemen were 
brought back from the boats, and taken to the parade- 
ground, and there shot down. Among them was the ex- 

12 



130 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

ary's grave. True, these mourners were 
poor. They were rude and untutored ; but 
their hearts were warm, and their sorrow 
sincere and deep. It was the emblem of 
that wide-extending sympathy, now awaken- 
ed throughout India, and throughout the 
Christian world, for Christ's suffering mar- 
tyrs, and his bleeding cause. It is fellow- 
ship with Christ, in his sufferings, and in his 
death, and in the power of his glorious resur- 
rection, ascension, and exalted dominion. 
God is again uttering his decree, and writing 
it in the blood of martyrs, in the tears of 

cellent chaplain, Mr. Moncrieff, a godly man. A native 
witness says, that before they were shot, he asked for a 
few minutes to read. His request was granted, and he 
took from his pocket a small book, and read a short 
time. Then all the gentlemen shook hands with each 
other, and were immediately shot. It is conjectured 
that Mr. Moncrieff read the burial-service over himself 
and his Christian brethren. One boat had gone several 
miles down the river, but was caught and brought back 
to Cawnpore. The gentlemen were all killed at once. 
The ladies and children, in all more than one hundred 
and fifty, were taken to a large house, called the Assem- 
bly Rooms, and there kept until the 15th of July. 



OF MISSIONS. 131 

mourners, and in the heart's deepest faith of 
all true believers. 

He whom the Father sent to die, 
Hath given us his commission high, 
The channels of his grace to be, 
And vessels of his charity. 

The Lamb, which by the wolves was slain. 
Sends us as lambs to wolves again; 
Till they — aside their nature laid — 
Are lambs of wolves by grace now made. 

The earth, which 'neath the offended skies. 
Was foul with impious sacrifice ; 
Now by your sweat 'tis newly dyed. 
And by your blood is purified. 

New fruits her genial face renew, 
Blest hj that fertilizing dew; 
Made a rich harvest by his grace! 
In which even such can find a place. 

If thou who dost the increase give, 
Wilt look on them, then they shall live, 
Eipen, and grow, and evermore 
Be gathered to thy heavenly store. 

Among the noble army of martyrs who 
have recently gone up with a shout, who 
found "sudden death, sudden glory,'' and 
found themselves at once transported '^from 



132 OBEDIENCEj THE LIFE 

the burning, blood-stained plains of heathen 
India to the quiet and peaceful rest that 
remaineth for the people of God in that 
home where Jesus dwells/' God raised up 
some illustrious civilians and soldiers, who 
have rejoiced to irradiate with the lustre of 
their fame that cross in which they gloried, 
and under which they fought and con- 
quered.* 

When General Havelock advanced to the 
relief of Lucknow, he met with numerous 
difficulties. In the first battle his little body 
of men were met by twenty-seven thousand 
of the enemy. They advanced, and beat 
them again and again; but they were 
stricken, not by man, but by God, and were 
compelled to retire, returning to Cawnpore 
to leave their sick and wounded. They then 

* *'The noble examples of Sir Henry Lawrence, Judge 
Robertson, ,Mr. Tucker, &c., have kindled a noble emu- 
lation; and the bravery and devotion of our countrymen 
all over India, makes us proud of the race. I am con- 
vinced that Christianity and missions have received a 
wonderful impetus through late events, that will before 
long result in some extraordinary manifestation against 
Satan's power, throughout heathendom." 



OF MISSIONS. 133 

advanced afresh, and reached the city, and 
pressed on, determined to secure the deli- 
verance of their fellow-countrymen. They 
passed through that archway where the fire 
of the enemy was so fierce as almost to blind 
them by the blaze. Not a cry was raised, 
not a voice was heard, not an alarm was 
given. The bullet and the bayonet did their 
work in silence, for they were vigorous, and 
determined that nothing should stop them; 
and before the enemy knew it, they reached 
the place, and the Highlanders were seen 
shaking hands with the Englishmen, and the 
Englishmen tossing the children in the air, 
in the midst of their joy, and a shout was 
raised, ^'Havelock is come! we are saved, 
we are saved!' 'Now Hindooism (to use the 
language of a missionary) is a fortified 
city; its walls are thick, and it contains 
millions whom we are to save. We have 
to set them free, and our numbers are few ; 
but let us not be afraid of those who en- 
counter us. Let us increase our missions 
from four hundred to six hundred. That 
city shall then fall; and, though we die 
12* 



134 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

in the contest, we shall hear the voice of 
the Hindoos crying out, 'We are saved, we 
are saved !' '' 

'^Havelock is gone. Heaven's will is best: 
Indian tnrf o'erlies his breast. 
Ghoul in black, nor fool in gold, 
Laid him in yon hallowed mould: 
Guarded to a soldier's grave 
By the bravest of the brave, 

He hath gained a nobler tomb ; 

Than in old cathedral gloom; ; 

Nobler mourners paid the rite \ 

Than the crowd that craves a sight; ! 

England's banners o'er him waved — ] 

Dead, he keeps the realm he saved. < 

Strew not on the hero's hearse t 

Garlands of a herald's verse ; | 

Let us hear no words of fame ] 

Sounding loud a deathless name ; i 

Tell us of no vauntful glory f^ 

Shouting forth her haughty story. * 

All life long his homage rose ■ ' 

To far other shrine than those. ■* 

^In Hoc Si^no,^ pale nor dim, \ 

Lit the battle-field for him ; | 

And the prize he sought and won, ! 

Was the crown for duty done. i 

i 

But being dead, do not these heroic spirits ' 
Still speak to us ? Does not their blood cry \ 

\ 



OF MISSIONS. 135 

aloud, not only to heaven, but also to the 
earth, saying, "How long! Wilt thou not 
avenge our blood? Come over and help us! 
Haste to deliver!" 

The youth of England — its beauty and 
its chivalry — are rushing to India, to fill 
the vacant posts of danger. Sir Colin 
Campbell asked for only twenty-four hours 
to get ready to go. At the siege of Delhi, 
two young officers, three sergeants, and 
one trumpeter, volunteered to fasten bags 
of powder to the gates of Delhi, amid a 
storm of bullets pouring upon them from the 
loopholes within ; and with fearful loss and 
suffering they did it ! 

And can the Church do less ? Are life, 
and blood, and treasures, dearer to it than 
to the world? Or is the duty less impera- 
tive? Or is the honour less glorious? Or is 
the victory less certain? Who, then, will 
go for the dead? How many mothers who 
have buried one martyred son, and have 
others fighting in the field, are like that re- 
cent Spartan mother, ready to equip others 
for the good fight, and only sorry she had 



136 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

not many more able and willing to go ? How 
many whose children have been slaughtered 
by that hybrid monster, Nena Sahib, have 
the heart of that mother who recently re- 
quested the prayers of five thousand Chris- 
tians for the conversion of him who had 
made her motherless? 

Christians in England are all actively 
zealous in responding to the call. We find a 
great increase in the candidates for missions 
at the universities where hitherto the great- 
est backwardness existed. All denominations 
cooperate. Let not Christians in America 
be found lagging. The seal of God is on 
our forehead. We have been baptized with 
the missionary spirit and consecrated and 
set apart to the missionary work. Reserved 
in undiscovered solitude until the set time 
to favour Zion had come — just on the eve of 
the wonderful developments of modern sci- 
ence and civilization — two of the greatest 
systems of error that ever cursed the world 
in their dotage — Protestantism everywhere 
springing up with new life- — having access 
to the world of men — away from the effete 



OF MISSIONS. 137 

systems of the Old World — free from their 
corruptions — palpitating with the fires of 
evangelism — and swaying an influence in 
the world paramount to all others — let Ame- 
rican Christians act worthy of their high 
calling and exalted destiny. 

India with her teeming multitudes stretches 
out her hands, and calls beseechingly for our 
help. In the four presidencies, there are 
one hundred and twelve millions, with some 
four hundred missionaries; or one to each 
quarter million. In the territories outside 
the presidencies, there are, among sixty- 
four millions of natives, only eight mission- 
aries. And has not the Captain of our sal- 
vation been himself going up and down 
among our churches, through the length and 
breadth of the land, and recruiting good 
soldiers of Jesus Christ for the glorious war? 
Has not he who called unto him the twelve, 
and again other seventy also, saying "Follow 
me," called unto him recently at least one 
hundred thousand souls, and a large propor- 
tion of them young men and maidens, and 



138 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

caused them to arise and stand up a great 
army ? 

"Let us not be desponding, but hopeful. 
The voice of this revival in America comes, 
(to use the stirring words of John Angel 
James, of England,) to every country, and 
to every Christian, as the midnight cry of 
old, 'Behold, the bridegroom cometh!' 

"A new era is struggling into birth, 
Christ is moving to reorganize the world. 
Is it a vision of my imagination ? Or is it 
only a spectral form which I see ? Or is it^ 
! is it the Saviour himself walking upon 
the waters of the Atlantic^ and receding 
with his face towards Britain ? I hear his 
voice saying to this country, ' Behold, I come 
quickly, and my reward is with me.' 0! 
brethren, shall we fear, neglect, repel Him? 
Shall we, like the mercernary Gadarenes, 
entreat Him to leave our coasts, or shall we 
not rather implore his presence and say, 
^Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly, and land 
upon our shores?' '' 

The Son of God is gone to war, 
A kingly crown to gain; 



OF MISSIONS. 139 

His blood-red banner streams afar ; 

Who follows in his train ? 
Who best can drink his cup of woe, 

Triumphant over pain ; 
Who boldest bears his cross below — ' 

He follows in his train. 

The martyr first, whose eagle eye 

Could pierce beyond the grave ; 
Who saw his Master in the sky 

And called on Him to save : 
Like Him, with pardon on his tongue, 

In midst of mortal pain, 
He prayed for them that did the wrong: 

Who follows in His train ? 

A glorious band, the chosen few, 

On whom the Spirit came, 
Twelve valiant saints, the truth they knew, 

And braved the cross and flame : 
They met the tyrant's brandished steel. 

The lion's gory mane ; 
They bowed their necks the death to feel : 

Who follows in their train ? 

A noble army, men and boys. 

The matron and the maid, 
Around their Saviour's throne rejoice. 

In robes of light arrayed ; 
They climbed the dizzy steep of heaven, 

Through peril, toil, and pain : 
! God, to us may grace be given, 

To follow in their train. 



140 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 



THE GREATNESS OF THE WORK AND GREATNESS OF THE 
POWER. 

The heathen are not yet given to Christ 
for his inheritance, nor the uttermost parts 
of the earth for his possession; but they 
are his by a divine decree. They are his in 
certain reversion. Nay, they are his in ac- 
tual possession. They are under his domin- 
ion. They are governed by his providence 
and laws. He is fulfilling among them the 
secret purposes of his will, and making 
known through them to principalities and 
powers in heavenly places the manifold les- 
sons of his wisdom and mercy, of sin and 
salvation, of the apostasy and recovery of 
man. 

But there is no mystery as to the result. 
By special revelation, that result was made 
known to the Apostle Paul, (Eph. iii. 2-7) 
and demonstrated by his almost superhuman 
life and labours. To talk of difficulties and 
discouragements and dangers, is unbeliev- 
ing disobedience. God has promised, and 
who shall make his promise of none effect? 
Ps. ii. 8, kc.) To his church he has given 



OF MISSIONS. 141 

the assurance, ''Thou shalt break forth on 
the right hand and on the left; and thy 
seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make 
the desolate cities to be inhabited," (Isa. liv. 
8,) and who can arrest her onward course? 
He has declared, ''I will gather all nations 
and tongues; and they shall come and see 
my glory. And I will set a sign among 
them, and I will send those that escape of 
them unto the nations >i^ ^ ^ * that have not 
heard my fame, neither seen my glory: and 
they shall declare my glory among the Gen- 
tiles,'' (Isa. Ixvi. 18 19,) and who may ven- 
ture to say the work is impracticable? He 
has promised of his Son, ''He will lift up 
an ensign to the nations from far, and will 
hiss unto them from the end of the earth ; 
and behold they shall come with speed swift- 
ly,'' (Isa. V. 26,) and who can doubt of suc- 
cess in a work like this? No! beloved 
brethren, with the open pages of God's word 
and promises before us, we cannot doubt. 
The work must go on, until every knee shall 
bow, and every tongue confess. God's pur- 
poses must and will be fulfilled. 
13 



142 OBEDIENCEj THE LIFE 

Neither is there any mystery as to the 
agency for accomplishing this result. It is 
by men that men are to be converted. The 
redeemed are to restore the captives. The 
saved are to seek the lost^ and those who 
hear and live are to become the preachers to 
them that have never heard, and who are 
perishing for lack of knowledge. This has 
been God's agency in all past dispensations 
of the church and is the only instrumen- 
tality instituted for all time to come. (Rom. 
X. 13-16). 

Neither is there any ambiguity as to the 
course of duty. Events belong to the Lord, 
but commands belong to us. Obedience, 
therefore, is ours, and it is with God to bless 
or to withhold his blessing, to withhold or 
to withdraw his presence; and this obedi- 
ence is to be rendered according to our 
ability and opportunity, whether success or 
disaster has attended past exertions — whe- 
ther hope or despondency lower upon the 
future. The very essence of obedience is that 
it is rendered from a principle of love, sub- 
mission, and confidence towards God, whose 



OF MISSIONS. 143 

will IS done. Let us suppose that missions to 
the heathen were a failure. Let us forget 
that Christendom, including all Christian 
civilization, is itself the fruit of missionary 
effort. Let us forget that the ice-bound 
shores of Greenland have become a fruitful 
field and a garden of the Lord under mission- 
ary culture. Let us cease to remember that 
the islands of the Pacific have blossomed with 
the rose of Sharon, planted there by mission- 
ary hands. Let us forget that in India and 
Burmah, in New Zealand and Ceylon, and 
amid the jungle forests of Africa, thousands 
make prayer continually, and offer praises to 
Jesus. Let us forget that every wind wafts 
his story, and every sea bears his glad 
tidings, and that there is no speech nor lan- 
guage where this voice is not heard. Let us 
suppose that amid the thick darkness which 
rests upon the nations who know not God, 
the eye can catch no ray of light to tell 
of coming day ; that Mohammedanism, now 
almost at its last gasp, was "lengthening its 
cords, and strengthening its stakes;" that 
the gates of China, instead of being thrown 



144 

open to our missionaries, were double-barred 
against us; that no voice reached us from 
other lands to tell of the triumphs of Mes- 
siah's cause. Let us close our eyes and ears 
to every encouraging fact, and suppose all 
this, and more — and what then ? Will this 
excuse us for our neglect of imperative obli- 
gation ? Will it free us from the debt of 
duty which we owe to the perishing heathen, 
which we owe to God ? We are required to 
love our neighbour as ourselves. This com- 
mand has its source in our common nature, 
our common origin. But what manner of 
love is that which sees a brother perishing 
for lack of knowledge, and yet stretches out 
no hand to save him — makes no effort, no 
sacrifice to deliver him ? Unto whomsoever 
this gospel is sent, upon him does the obliga- 
tion rest to make it known to those who have 
it not. The message must pass from man to 
man, until all the world have gathered be- 
neath the standard of the cross. (Rev. xxii. 
17.) ^^ Whether they will hear, or whether 
they will forbear," we who have the gospel 
must make it known "in all the world for a 



OF MISSIONS. 145 

Witness unto all nations/' " Go ye Into all 
the world, and preach the gospel to every 
creature/' is God's command to uSj no less 
than to his primitive apostles and disciples ; 
and whether they receive our testimony or 
reject it — whether none or millions be con- 
verted by our instrumentality, our witness is 
with God, and to him, and not to success, do 
we look for the acceptance and the reward 
of our duty and obedience. Whatever may 
be God's time to bless, our time of labour is 
now. We must work whilst it is day, and 
leave events and time to God. We must 
sow the seed now, the plant will spring up 
and ripen in God's own good season. So 
long as the word of God remains with us, it 
matters not how great our discouragements 
and difficulties. '' Woe be unto us if we 
preach not the gospel." 

When Dr. Judson laboured at Rangoon 
and other places, there were no visible fruits 
from his labours, and the Board of Missions 
at home began to be doubting and disheart- 
ened. This man of strong-winged faith, in 
the very midst of all the discouraging scenes, 
13* 



146 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

was the only one whose courage and confi- 
dence never failed. He never doubted of 
the conversion of Burmah, whether or not he 
should be permitted to gather the first fruits ; 
and his answer to desponding letters from 
America roused the home churches as with 
the voice of a trumpet. "Permit us to 
labour on in obscurity, and at the end of 
twenty years you may hear from us again." 
It was in this spirit, also, he replied to the 
question of the venerable Mr. Loring, " Do 
you think the prospects bright for the speedy 
conversion of the heathen?" "As bright," 
was his prompt reply, full of deep meaning, 
as well as of fine sentiment, " as bright as 
the promises of God !" 

Who that reads these pages can be assured 
of a more favourable and promising opportu- 
nity than the present for helping forward 
this glorious cause ? Which of us can look 
for any other time than the present now^ for 
doing his part towards sending the gospel to 
those who have it not? This may not be 
God's time to convert the world, but it is 
your time; the only time that you can call 



OF MISSIONS. 147 

your own. Death is ever near us, and in an 
hour that we know not of, we may be sum- 
moned to our great account ; and what ex- 
cuse will it be at the bar of judgment, when 
our Master shall charge us with neglecting 
to labour in his vineyard, to say, " I deemed 
that the time was not yet come for the con- 
version of the world, and therefore J did 
nothing.'' How will the soul be filled with 
horror, when, pointing to His children from 
the east and west, he replies, " Verily, verily, 
I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not 
unto the least of these, ye did it not unto 
me. Depart from me, I know ye not." 
For your soul's sake, then, beloved reader, 
let me beseech you deceive not yourself 
with the idea, that the time for you to con- 
tribute to the advancement of the Redeemer's 
kingdom has not yet come. 

Time was I shrank from wliat was right, 

From fear of what was wrong; 
I would not brave the sacred fight, 

Because the foe was strong. 

But now I cast that finer sense 

And sorer shame aside; 
Such dread of sin was indolence, 

Such aim at heaven was pride. 



148 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

Away then with fear, and unbelieving, 
covetous timidity, and faint- heartedness. 
The work is the Lord's, and the strength is 
his also. And though the mountains reach 
unto the heavens, and Jacob be but as a 
feeble worm, yet shall he thresh the moun- 
tains, and beat them small, and make the 
hills ^s chaff. In no part of his labours did 
Dr. Judson gather more abundant cause of 
joy than in his visits to the Karens, those 
wild, untutored children of the wilderness. 
Ascending almost impassable mountains, 
wading knee-deep for miles up the beds of 
mountain streams, drawing little companies 
around him in some way-side zayat, or 
preaching to wondering multitudes from his 
boat on some river-side, he felt as if the time 
to favour this people were come. "Yes!" 
he exclaims, writing on one occasion from 
the midst of the Karen jungles, "the great 
Invisible is in the midst of these Karen 
wilds. That mighty Being, who heaped up 
these craggy rocks, and reared these stu- 
pendous mountains, and poured out these 
Streams in all directions, and scattered im- 



OF MISSIONS, 149 

mortal beings throughout these deserts. He 
is present by the influence of his Holy Spirit, 
and accompanies the sound of the gospel 
with converting, sanctifying power. The 
best of all is, God is with us !'' 

Let us then be well assured of the ground 
on which we stand, in this great conflict. 
The honour, the power, the Sprit of the Son 
of God are on the one hand assailed; on the 
other, they are divinely pledged for the 
result. We must be identified with him, 
hide ourselves in him, conquer with him, or 
perish among his enemies. Away, then, 
with the brandishing of human weapons, and 
succumbing to human fear. Argue what we 
will, hope what we will, attempt what we 
will, it is vain, unless He works in us, and in 
the hearts of all we would bless. The con- 
flict is his ; and the faith he inspires, assures 
us that, trusting in him, consecrating our- 
selves to him, and doing the work he appoints, 
he will own our endeavours, and ultimate 
victory is certain. We may fall in the con- 
test, and honour him in the fires of martyr- 
dom, but he will conquer; and if not here, 



150 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

•we shall in heaven witness the triumph of his 
power and love. 

To what, then, does Christ by his Spirit call 
us for the world's conversion ? The voice of 
his providence and grace claims every renew- 
ed soul as wholly his, and demands that all the 
means of his own appointment be faithfully 
employed. We seem to hear him say, "These 
ought ye to have done, and not to leave the 
other undone.'' Not our own neighbourhood 
and land merely, but "every creature" must 
be supplied, not with the written word merely, 
which gives authority to all other means, but 
with the living ministry, which it appoints ; 
not by the labours of the commissioned minis- 
try alone, but with the cooperation of every 
member of the body of Christ ; not with oral 
preaching or instruction merely, but the same 
permanently embodied, and presented to the 
eye; not with any one of these instrumental- 
ities, alone, but with all united; or where all 
cannot at once be employed, with such as can 
be, as introductory to the rest, "if by any 
means'' we may "save some." 



OF MISSIONS. 151 

The Church has waited long 

Her absent Lord to see; 
And still in loneliness she waits — 

A friendless stranger she. 
Age after age has gone, 

Sun after sun has set, 
And still in weeds of widowhood 

She weeps, a mourner yet. 

Come, then, Lord Jesus, come ! 

Saint after saint on earth 

Has lived, and hoped, and died; 
And as they left us, one by one, 

We laid them side by side : 
We laid them down to sleep, 

But not in hope forlorn; 
We laid them but to ripen there 

Till the last glorious morn. 
Come, then, Lord Jesus, come! 

The serpent's brood increase, 

The powers of hell grow bold; 
The conflict thickens, faith is low, 

And love is waxing cold. 
How long, Lord our God, 

Holy, and true, and good, 
Wilt thou not judge thy suffering Church, 

Her sighs, and tears, and blood ? 
Come, then. Lord Jesus, come ! 

We long to hear thy voice. 
To see thee face to face ; 



152 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

To share thy crown and glory then, 
As now we share thy grace. 

Should not the loying bride 
The absent bridegroom mourn! 

Should she not wear the weeds of grief 
Until her Lord return? 

Come, then, Lord Jesus, come! 

The whole creation groans, 

And waits to hear that voice 
That shall restore her comeliness, 

And make her wastes rejoice. 
Come, Lord, and wipe away 

The curse, the sin, the stain. 
And make this blighted world of ours 

Thine own fair world again. 
Come, then, Lord Jesus, come! 



THE TRUE END AND YALUE OF LIFE. 

From all that has been said, let us learn 
the true value of life, that stupendous gift 
of God. Life is unspeakably and incalcula- 
bly sublime, considered as a participation of 
the divine immortal life. But life is incon- 
ceivably great, chiefly as an opportunity of 
doing good. In any other aspect, no iniage 
is too affecting to portray its vanity. Re 



OF MISSIONS. 153 

garded, however, as an agency, a trust, a 
day of toil, of strife, and of victorious 
achievement, life is gloriously sublime. In 
every form of self-denying, self-sacrificing 
endurance, life is glorious — whether it be the 
glory of the faithful mother; or of the pa- 
tient sufi'erer; or of virtue uncorrupted amid 
impurity and poverty; or of the persevering 
and enterprising, and public-spirited mer- 
chant; or of the toiling, cheerful and indus- 
trious artizan ; or of the laborious, indefati- 
gable student; or of the true, disinterested 
patriot; or of the gallant hero; or of the 
brave commander, who stands by his vessel, 
and her hapless crew, and sinks with her in 
indomitable firmness. But while these and 
all other forms of enterprise and suffering 
for the good of others, and in submission to 
the will of God, are glorious even as the 
glory of the stars, there is another form of 
life-long or life-sacrificing labour which is as 
the glory of the sun ! 

To feel that to live is Christ — to be so 
united to Christ that his work is our work, 
his will our will, his sufferings, death, and 
14 



154 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 



sacrijSce ours, his self-denial, love and cha- 
rity ours, his kingdom our inheritance, and 
his triumph and glory ours — to feel that 
to spend and be spent in his service, to be 
instant in season and out of season in win- 
ning souls to Christ, is our life — to feel that 
pain is pleasure, and weariness rest, and tri- 
bulation glory, and death gain, when en- 
dured as good soldiers of Jesus Christ — this 
is to shine with a glory which death itself 
shall not eclipse, but which rising in a 
brighter dawn, in a better land, in a hemis- 
phere encircled by the eternal hills watered 
by the river of life, and luxuriant as the 
paradise of God, shall shine more and more 
throughout the unending day of our ever 
brightening immortality. 

Dear reader ! Can you take God's will, 
and word, and decree as your inheritance? 
Can you say. Thy kingdom, Christ, is 
over all, thy power will subjugate all, and 
thy glory will obscure all? As it is in thy 
purposes, so is it in thy promises. So be it 
in our prayers, and praises, and labours, 



OP MISSIONS. 155 

until thy will is " done on earth as it is done 
in heaven." 

What say you reader ? Can you venture 
on Christ's promise all you love and live 
for, and life itself? Dr. Watts said, ''I have 
faith enough to venture body, soul, and spirit 
for an eternity upon it.'' The Rev. John 
Hyatt was for many years co-pastor with 
the Rev. Matthew Wilks, of the congrega- 
tions at the Tabernacle and Tottenham-court 
chapel. His venerable colleague, who called 
upon him a few hours before his death, in 
a characteristic conversation said, "Is all 
right for another world?" 

"I am very happy," said Mr. Hyatt. 

^'Have you made your will?" 

Mistaking the question — "The will of the 
Lord be done!" said the dying Christian. 

"Shall I pray with you?" 

"Yes, if you can ;" alluding to Mr. Wilks's 
feelings, at that moment considerably ex- 
cited. 

After prayer, "Well, my brother, if you 
had a hundred souls, could you commit them 
all to Christ now?" (alluding to an expres- 



156 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

sion Mr. Hyatt frequently Msed in the pul- 
pit.) With a mighty and convulsive effort, 
he replied, ''A million!" 

Thus also was it with our dear martyred 
sisters and brethren. 

They perished — but their wreath was won, 
Immortal on the heights of fame ; 

Nor sank a cloud on Zion's sun, 

For still she conquers in His name — 

Filled with whose life she cannot die, 
Her conquest is posterity. 

Christian reader ! To you, to me, to every 
one of us is given a banner, that it may 
be borne manfully for Christ's cause. "Fol- 
low me," is his war-cry. "Whithersoever I 
lead," is his emphatic word, as he rushes into 
the thickest of the fight. "He that loseth 
his life for my sake shall find it: and he 
that loveth it more than me is not worthy of 
me. And to him that overcometh and is 
faithful unto death, I will give a crown of 
life in glory everlasting." 

See how they close around his majestic 
person, catching fire from his eye, and daring 
from his presence. They endure hardness. 



OF MISSIONS. 157 

They fight not uncertainly. They contend 
earnestly even unto blood, striving against 
sin and Satan. They are baptized with a 
baptism of fire. They have trial of cruel 
mocking and scourging, yea, moreover, of 
bonds and imprisonment. They are stoned. 
They are sawn asunder. They are tempted 
with grievous, and unspeakable, yea, fiendish 
atrocities. They wander about in naked- 
ness, and peril, in hunger, and thirst. They 
are destitute, afflicted, tormented. They 
are mangled, hewn to pieces, and even cru- 
cified. 

But to them to live is Christ, and to die 
gain. They conquer though they die. Yea, 
they are more than conquerors through him 
that loveth them; whose grace is sufficient, 
and whose felt presence is perfect peace, and 
a present heaven. Christ is the strength of 
their failing heart, the light of their fading 
eye. They grasp their banner firmly, even 
in death, 

''And smile to see its splendors fly, 
In triumph o'er the closing eye." 

They h-ave fought the good fight. They 
14* 



158 

have kept the faith. They have let no man 
take their crown. And as the dimness of 
death seals the closing eyelid, and glazes 
the vacant eyeball, and the cold chill freezes 
their heart's blood, their spirit revives on 
seeing Christ's banner waving still over them. 
And as a dying patriot requested that the 
flag under which he had fought and conquered 
might be placed under his head for a pillow, 
while life was ebbing away, so does the 
Christian, whose pulse of life is fleeting, 
pillow his sinking head on his Saviour's 
bosom; while the last beat of his heart 
sends up to heaven the shout, "Thanks be 
to God, who giveth us the victory through 
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." 

And may He, whose is the kingdom, and 
the power, and the life, and the glory, first 
work in each of us to will^ and then to do 
his good pleasure here ; and then by his un- 
speakable grace make us partakers of his 
glory, and in his kingdom in heaven. 

''Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to 
Godj by thy blood out of every kindred, and 



OF MISSIONS. 159 

tongue, and nation, and hast made us unto 
our God kings and priests.'' 

"Coelo quos eadem gloria consecrat." 

Ye that are now in heavenly glory one, 
May we together join, with earthly voice, 

Hymning your everlasting victories, won 
By arduous labours, and the better choice. 

Now love and unveiled truth doth feed for aye, 
And ye drink full of joy's o'erflowing wells. 

Where slakes the soul her thirst that cannot die ; 
And by the sacred fountain ever dwells. 

From inmost shrines from whence the Godhead 
streams. 

The King, himself, with his own countenance, 
Shines o'er you, and, unsparing of his beams, 

Fills the soul's dwelling with his radiance. 

From out the golden altar, 'neath the throne, 
Blood of the Innocent for mercy pleads ; 

Shed in the cause of Him who sits thereon, 
For ever sues anew, and ever bleeds. 

Mid lightnings numberless, thro' the dim vast 
Of light, the adoring elders bow them down, 

To Him, whose kingdom shall for ever last; 
And each before him casts his golden crown. 

Nations and languages of countless tongue, 
With jubilant palm, and robes washed white in 
blood, 



160 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

For ever sing the inexpressive song — 
Him the thrice holy, and the only Good. 

Glory on earth, and glory be above, 
To Father, Son, and Spirit, ever blest. 

Who with o'erflowing, boundless love. 

Saints to their fulness fill with perfect rest.* 

I love thy kingdom. Lord, 

The house of thine abode ; 
The church our blest Redeemer saved 

With his own precious blood. 

I love thy church, God ! 

Her walls before thee stand. 
Dear as the apple of thine eye, 

And graven on thy hand. 

If e'er to bless thy sons 

My voice or hands deny, 
These hands let useful skill forsake, 

This voice in silence die. 

If e'er my heart forget 

Her welfare or her woe, 
Let every joy this heart forsake, 

And every grief o'erflow. 

For her my tears shall fall; 

For her my prayers ascend: 
To her my cares and toils be given, 

'Till toils and cares shall end. 

* Ancient Hymn. 



OF MISSIONS. 161 

Beyond my liigliest joy 

I prize her heavenly ways ; 
Her sweet communion, solemn vows, 

Her hymns of love and praise. 

Jesus, thou Friend divine, 

Our Saviour, and our King, 
Thy hand from every snare and foe 

Shall great deliverance bring. 

Sure as thy truth shall last, 

To Zion shall be given 
The brightest glories earth can yiel l^ 

And brighter bliss of heaven. 



THE FIELD OF THE "WORLD. 

A MORAVIAN MISSIONARY HYMN. 

High on his everlasting throne. 

The King of saints his work surveys ; 
Marks the dear souls he calls his own, 

And smiles on that peculiar race. 
He rests well pleased their toil to see, 

Beneath his easy yoke they move. 
With all their heart and strength agree, 

In the sweet labour of his love. 

His eye the world at once looks through- 

A vast, uncultivated field ; 
Mountains and vales in ghastly show, 

A barren, uncouth prospect yield. 



162 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 



Cleared of tlie thorns by civil care, 
A few less hideous wastes are seen; 

Yet still they all continue bare, 
And not one spot of earth is green. 

See where the servants of their God, 

A busy multitude appear! 
For Jesus day and night employed, 

His husbandry they toil to clear. 
The love of Christ their hearts constrains, 

And strengthens their unwearied hands ; 
They spend their blood, and sweat, and pains, 

To cultivate Emmanuel's lands. 

Alarmed at their successful toil, 

Satan and his wild spirits rage. 
They labour to tear up and spoil. 

And blast the rising heritage. 
In every wilderness they sow 

The seed of death, the carnal mind; 
They would not let one virtue grow, 

Nor leave one seed of good behind. 

Yet still the servants of the Lord, 

Look up and calmly persevere; 
Supported by the Master's word, 

The adverse powers they scorn to fear. 
Gladly their happy work pursue ; 

The labour of their hands is seen, 
Their hands the face of earth renew; 

Some spots at least are lively green. 



OF MISSIONS. 163 

To dig the ground they thus bestow 

Their lives, from every softened clod 
They gather out the stones, and sow 

The immortal seed, the word of God. 
They water it with tears and prayers, 

Then long for the returning word ; 
Happy, if all their pains and cares, 

Can bring forth fruit to please the Lord. 

Jesus their work delighted sees. 

Their industry vouchsafes to crown ; 
He kindly gives the wished increase. 

And sends the promised blessing down. 
The sap of life, the Spirit's powers. 

He rains incessant from above; 
He all his gracious fulness showers, 

To perfect their great work of love. 

multiply thy sower's seed. 

And fruit we every hour shall bear; 
Throughout the world thy gospel spread, 

Thy everlasting grace declare ; 
We all in perfect love renewed. 

Shall know the greatness of thy power, 
Stand in the temple of our God, 

As pillars, and go out no more. 



164 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 



NOTE. 

A THIRD EXTRAORDINARY FACT. 

In addition to the two extraordinary facts 
mentioned, as demonstrative of the power 
and efficiency of the church for the conver- 
sion of the world, a third may be added, and 
that is, that the church after having been 
established by miracles and inspired teachers, 
has held on her way until the present time, 
under the operation of ordinary causes, and 
the agency of uninspired, and often weak, 
ignorant, and wicked men. 

" In the formation of any society, nothing 
is more likely than that the means adopted 
for its first establishment should be also the 
means proposed for its continuance and se- 
curity. Thus the same institutions by which 
Lycurgus or Solon each established a com- 
munity of that description which best pleased 
himself, were, by them, considered as the most 
conducive to perpetuate it in its genuine 



OF MISSIONS. 165 

purity. This, indeed, will be mostly the case 
in all human societies. But the reverse oc- 
curs in the history of the church. It was 
established by miracles, exhibiting an infinite 
variety of superhuman power; it has been 
perpetuated without any. Its very rulers 
and agents (as if to make the contrast still 
more striking) have not remained the same. 
The terms apostle^ prophet, interpreter, &c. 
denote offices which seem to have been de- 
signed only for the formation of the church ; 
and, accordingly, to have been dropped on 
its complete establishment. Even some of 
the customary usages of Christianity partook 
of this temporary character; and these, if 
preserved, have been applied by the purest 
churches to purposes different from those 
which they originally served." 

The reason for this apparent abandonment 
of Christianity to the natural operation of 
its own principles, and system of laws, offi- 
cers and order, is, therefore, a still further 
proof of its inherent efficacy as the power of 
God to the conversion of the world, and the 
salvation of SQuls, 
15 



166 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

The establishment of Christianity was a 
miraculous revelation and institution by God 
of all the truth and of all the instrumentality 
necessary for the fulfilment of his decree, 
that the heathen shall be converted. And 
just as God, having created the universe and 
established its order, laws, adaptations, and 
relations, withdrew all miraculous interposi- 
tion, and left the completed work, which was 
all very good, to accomplish its purposes 
under his divine providence ; so, having com- 
pleted the revelation of the truth, and the 
institutions and instrumentalities of the gos- 
pel, all further superhuman interference by 
revelation or miraculous agency was un- 
necessary, and would imply imperfection. 
Their withdrawal, therefore, is the assurance 
that God's work was finished, and all very 
good, and that his church and gospel are 
mighty through God ; and that their present 
design is, as the angel flying in mid-heaven, 
to preach the everlasting gospel to every 
nation, and kindred, and tribe, and people. 

All expectations, therefore, of miraculous 
interposition for the promulgation and tri- 



OF MISSIONS. 167 

umph of the gospel, and of the personal 
return and reign of Christ in earthly glory, 
are based on the idea of the present insuffi- 
ciency, incompleteness, and powerlessness of 
the gospel system, and are a plain and mani- 
fest denial of the sufficiency of Scripture to 
make wise unto salvation ; of the adequacy 
of the gospel as the power and the wisdom 
of God for the salvation of all that believe; 
of the fitness of the church to be both the 
pillar and the ground, that is, the preserver 
and the propagator of the truth; of Christ's 
prophecy that the gates of hell should not 
prevail against it; and of Christ's promised 
presence and power to the end of the world. 
The volume of revelation has been sealed 
and closed. Christ's kingdom is come. 
Christ's truth is perfect, and able to make 
wise unto salvation, and to convey the gospel 
to every creature. And the church is God's 
only appointed instrumentality, first for pre- 
serving the Scriptures; secondly, for bear- 
ing witness to them ; thirdly, the propaga- 
tion of them; and lastly, as being God's 



168 OBEDIENCE, THE LIFE 

ministry for the reconciliation and salvation 
of men. 

Grant that the church thus left has been 
unfaithful, cold, wayward, and selfish, and 
that it has often greatly departed from its 
inspired principles, and divine precedents 
and purposes, for worldly and ambitious ends. 
This does not affect the truth or efficacy of 
either. " The same difficulty meets us in the 
history of the progressive corruption of the 
human race; in the backslidings of God's cho- 
sen people, the Jews ; and it was what we have 
reason to look for in the last dispensation 
itself, from the prophetic warning of its in- 
spired founders. It is a difficulty which re- 
solves itself into the inexplicable question 
concerning the existence of evil. The general 
corruption of the Christian world at any past 
period, ought to be considered rather as a 
presumption that the church is assisted by 
God ; and this the more the earlier such cor- 
ruption occurred, and for this obvious reason. 
When the old world began to corrupt reli- 
gion, we know that they plunged deeper and 
deeper into error, in every age, and country, 



OF MISSIONS. 169 

and system of theology, or morals. And we 
see plainly that if left to themselves the 
Jews would have sunk into a similar total 
apostasy and corruption. And why did they 
not? Because Grod continually interposed.'' 
And what then but a corresponding, though 
insensible, divine guardianship, can account 
for the revivals, the reformations, the purifi- 
cations, through martyrdom and blood, the 
ever recurring zeal for Christ and his truth, 
the self-denial, devotedness, and missionary 
enterprise, the manly liberality, union, and 
onward progress, which are now manifesting 
their power in every part of the earth where 
evangelical Christianity exists? 

What the church has done it can do, and 
what has been done for the church can be 
and will be done, until her victory is com- 
plete, and her dominion universal. He who 
is with her is greater than all that can be 
against her. The Lord in the midst of her 
is mighty. 

Nay, Bride of Heaven ! thou art not all bereft, 
Though this world's prince against thy power rebels ; 
By thrones, dominions, wealth, and honours left, 

16* 



170 THE LIFE OF MISSIONS. 

Within tliee still the Eternal Spirit dwells, 
Thy pledged possession. Seek nor seer nor sign, 
True Temple of that Habitant Divine. 
Thy part is simple. Fearless still proclaim 
The Truth to men who loathe her very name. 
Proclaim that He, to Paul in glory shown, 
Even from that glory calls thy wrongs his own; 
And if thy night be dark — -if tempests roll, 
Dread as the visions of thy boding soul, 
Still in thy dimness, watch, and fast, and pray, 
And wait the bridegroom's call—the burst of open- 
ing day. 



THE END. 



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16 



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